Impossible
by Niji Hitomi Kabra
Summary: It's a well-known fact that Devil Fruits render their users sterile. This makes children of Devil Fruit users impossible, but when Nami conceives, Luffy isn't the only one that questions her. And with Chopper out of touch, the dissension among the Strawhats provides the perfect chance for an old enemy to strike at the new World Government. Futurefic, Preg, Mpreg. See Notes!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hey there, minna! This is fic number 2 of 2 for the OP Big Bang. Same dealie with this one as with the other one, the full thing is posted over on my AO3 if y'all don't wanna wait, but 28 chapters is a lot to upload all at once, even if it is Beta'd and ready to go. Unlike the other one this one doesn't have many notes on it. Just because of the limited description of FF's boxes, here's the full tags:

Kidnapping, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Pregnancy, Mpreg, Hidden Villain, Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending.

Y'all know what to expect from me by now, ne? XD Enjoy~!

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**Chapter 1: Luffy Knows! Escape from Raftel!**

How had it come to this? Her shoulders hitched, hands covering her face, wet strings of hair trapped between her fingers as sobs wracked her body. Around her, pieces of the splintered cartographer's desk lay forlorn like the scattered fragments of her hopes and dreams. His last words before flinging himself from the building like a cannonball still echoed around the room, pounding with the beat of her heart.

"All you ever do is think about yourself!"

She climbed to her feet, a familiar numbness creeping into her bones. Her mind fell blank but somehow she made herself leave the house. Before it clarified again, she was racing down the path that connected her home to the rest of the town. Rain poured down from broken skies that seemed to mimic her pain, as though the weather was affected by her emotions. She pounded through the puddles, splashing past curious faces and the occasional inquiry of concern. The bangles on her wrists, and the necklace he'd given her, bounced with her pace, though hidden beneath a cloak that had been a wedding gift from Genzo.

The harbor was just down the road and around the corner.

If she was lucky she could stowaway on a ship. Infiltration had always been one of her specialties after all; so even if it was a Marine vessel, she was certain she could make it to the Red Line before needing to find a new place to hide.

Maybe she could even get all the way to the All-Blue before it got too big.

Sliding to a stop at the edge of the road to the dock, her hand fell to the gentle rounding in her midsection that wasn't quite big enough for most of the world to notice. Tears began anew, and she shook her head. If he didn't want her gift, she wasn't about to let him dictate how she cared about it. It was her choice, and she had taken the steps she needed to in order to set it up.

She turned to look over her shoulder, brown eyes wide and reddened from crying. After all this time… how could he just throw her out like that? The only one that had been with him longer was the stupid swordsman, and sure, at first, she'd only used him to get back to Cocoyasi Village, but that was years ago! Hadn't she proved herself? Hadn't she fought by his side, helped him get to where he was today? Hadn't she loved him?

A sound that she resolutely refused to call a whimper escaped her lips, and she pulled the cloak closer around her shoulders. Chopper told her on his last visit that once it worked out she should be careful about getting sick, because even the slightest cold could make things become unstable and she'd lose it. The procedure was experimental at best to begin with, and the little reindeer could make no promises if it would even work in the first place, let alone whether they could try again.

So, she'd kept it secret. She knew how he got his hopes up about things, and the last thing she wanted was for him to be disappointed. It was just how he was, and her heart clenched at that thought. How could he not trust her?

"Navigator-san." The gentle, alto voice broke through her thoughts, startling her.

"Ah. R-Robin!" She quickly wiped her cheeks, trying to hide what she knew the archaeologist had already seen. "I didn't see you there!"

"Naturally." The brunette woman began to smile, but her eyebrows drew together. "Your mind was elsewhere." Her eyes flickered up to the top of the hill, where the innocuous cottage sat, looking over the town. "Perhaps somewhere warm, dry and more suited to waiting out the weather than the middle of the road."

The ginger shook her head vehemently at the implication. "No. I need to find a ship. Please tell me you're docked somewhere nearby?"

If Robin was here, chances were that Franky was around too, and that meant she wouldn't have to stowaway. She could ride comfortably. Maybe she'd go to Drum Island, or back to Water 7. Regardless of where she went, she couldn't stay there. Raftel was no longer home if he wanted nothing to do with her.

Robin pulled the soaked woman into her side to share body heat, supporting her best friend, her favorite chess opponent, her Nakama. "Of course, Nami-san. Come with me and we'll get this all sorted out back on the Lotus."

The ginger didn't even realize she was shivering until that lithe, secretly powerful, arm slid around her shoulders. Her hands trembled harder as she gripped the cloak, hoping to hide what threatened to become both shame and mistake. It really wasn't much, but on her skinny frame the difference was noticeable, especially to those closest to her. It was how he'd found out. Damn his moments of absolute savant level clarity!

She shook her head, feeling the stress weighing heavily on her shoulders. All she wanted to do was curl up with a stack of fresh parchment and a clean quill next to the gently flickering flame of her personal heater. Of course that was ruined now too. The entire room was trashed, but for the locked cabinet next to the door where she kept her finished charts. Even at his most angry, he wouldn't hurt that. She shuddered involuntarily at the memory of the burn in his eyes, and bit her lip to hold back the not-whimper, letting her almost-sister guide her to the small two-person ship.

Robin traveled as fast as she dared. She could tell things were horribly wrong, but this was not the time to be asking questions, especially not painful awkward ones. So she quickly got her Nakama onto the ship, into the galley, and, with the help of so many hands she could hardly see, undressed and redressed the frozen woman in dry clothes. The brunette gave her a blanket to wrap up in while waiting for the tea being brewed on the small stove. Raspberry leaf, specifically, for its health-giving properties regarding the female reproductive system.

During this, the grateful ginger related what had happened between her and the most powerful man in the world over the last several hours.

"So, what is your plan?"

It was routine now. Something would happen that altered the status quo, the navigator would come up with a course of action, then she would brief Robin, who was her most dependable partner, her pillar of support, her trusted right hand.

"Plan? Heh... right... plan." Other than 'get away' she honestly, for once, hadn't thought of anything. "I suppose try to find Sanji-kun and Zoro. At least until he's calmed down and I can actually talk to him about what's going on."

She gripped her mug, relishing the scent of the brewed liquid when a disembodied hand grew from the table to pour the steaming pot into it. She looked lost and for all the world as though nothing made sense anymore.

"I-I'm sorry, Nee-san. I just never thought he wouldn't believe me."

Robin frowned. "...I can't say as I ever thought that either. Luffy is usually so perceptive about these sorts of things. He isn't the type to be easily... misdirected... But Swordsman-san is out. As the first mate and his best friend, Zoro will be the one he goes to first and—oh dear—if he's there, Sanji is probably with him. No matter his personal feelings on the matter, Zoro's first loyalty is to his captain. Given Luffy's reaction… Zoro will most likely not believe you either, and these days, he can prevent Cook-san from offering aid."

The archeologist bit her lip as she turned her own cup in her hands, her thoughts circling faster than the petals of her Devil Fruit. She already wasn't liking this, and judging simply by appearance, the Strawhats had a ways to go before the truth was fully known.

"I wish... well, it doesn't matter what I wish." Nami sighed, "Just... get me to Water 7. I can make it from there. If I can't stay with Sanji-kun, maybe Kaya will be willing, if nothing else, to give me a roof over my head while I try to sort this out fully." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and held her temple, closing her eyes for moment. "Chopper never said I wouldn't be able to think clearly. I didn't even know it was going to rain today."

Robin kissed her forehead, pushing her damp hair out of her face. "Shhh. I'm told from the second it happens the hormones throw everything off, and with the day you've had I cannot blame you for paying less than perfect attention to the weather. It's okay."

The navigator had just decided to rest her head on her arms, when the door to the small vessel's interior banged open with a loud, "Ow! Bobby, you'll never guess..." Sunglasses were pulled down, a sky blue eyebrow arched, and his voice dropped to a distinct growl, "What's she doin' here?"

"I... Franky! It isn't... I mean... don't be angry! I didn't! I swear!" Nami was on her feet again, backing against the wall opposite the large cyborg, who had obviously been to see her husband before coming here.

Robin gave him that most vicious look. It was one he'd seen only three times before—the 'you will shut up right this instant or I will finish the castration I started in Water Seven!' look. This was accompanied with the 'either fuck off or obey me' hand gesture he saw on more of a weekly basis when he done something she didn't agree with, but didn't consider worthy of a nasty look. That woman spoke more without words...

She went straight to Nami afterward, one eye on her man as she soothed, "It's okay, don't stress yourself, dear. Come on, sit back down, shhhh. Franky will get the ship moving and take us anywhere we want to go, isn't that right, honey?"

The smile she added over her shoulder would have had Luffy himself shrinking back from her.

He gulped audibly, his right hand instinctively clutching his family jewels, and taking a step back, "A-anything fer you, Babe! Where we headed, Navigator?"

His second sentence was colder than he probably should have used but he hoped the immediate compliance would help him avoid going to bed that evening in pain. Since he could still hear the girls while securing the rigging and lifting the anchor, he did so, while waiting for instructions.

Nami sank into the seat again, cursing the fact that she was on the verge of more tears. "Anywhere! Just get me out of this hell!"

The desperate tone in the ginger's voice had the cyborg tilting his head back around the frame of the door. He pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head, bedecked with a Mohawk today, and eyed the two women. Catching his lover's gaze, he hoped the confusion and desire to speak later came across as well as he wanted it to. Silent language was her bag, not his, but somehow she usually knew what he meant anyway.

Robin gave him the 'we'll talk after Nami is in bed, she needs to rest' nod in reply and soothed her Nakama, hugging and rocking her gently. "Shhh, shh. It's okay. It hurts most now. Tomorrow, it'll hurt too, but a little less. Enough, maybe, to go numb and come up with a plan. You know you're our best strategist. You've been the only thing that got us through so many trying times in the past. You'll be able to get through this as well. Things will still look bleak in the morning, I know, but you might be able to think then. It's okay. You're with us."

The stoic older woman never lied, not to her Nakama. It wouldn't look better in the morning, not really. It hadn't when she'd known all the people she loved were dead and she was still a lone survivor. But she'd had to come out of it. She'd had to make a plan in order to keep surviving, to keep going. She knew what to do for her devastated friend, or at least she hoped so.

For once, because everything else seemed to be wrong, and the only thing she wanted was to be wrapped in that impossible embrace again, the navigator let the archeologist soothe her until she fell into a fitful sleep on the ebony-haired woman's shoulder. It was almost enough to make her believe they were back on the Sunny and everything had just been another one of those horrible nightmares all of the crew suffered from occasionally.

Satisfied he'd gotten his message through and wanting to give the girls privacy, Franky used a tiny Coup de Vent to propel the ship back out of the harbor in the direction they'd come. Unfortunately for the women's conversation from before, that meant the Mecha Lotus was on a direct intercept course with the All-Blue.

A couple of hours later, the bright blue hair poked its way silently into the cabin. Thanks to his tricks, and the ship's design itself, a hybrid of his cola-engine and the jet dial technology, they were miles out to sea, and the island's weather was no longer affecting them. The sun was beginning to set, but the air was still warm.

Robin had tucked Nami into the galley bunk with a pillow under her head and was sitting at the table, with a deep, painful frown. It wasn't the kind that said anything, exactly. But this was the frown she wore when reviewing her deepest, most painful memories; when something truly horrible and cruel had happened, the kind of injustice Luffy so valiantly had always charged forth to rectify. Yet in this case, it was the savior himself that had caused such pain.

Seeing Franky at the door, she stood silently. Abandoning her cup, she followed him out on deck where their talk would not wake the poor woman who was their current guest.

His curiosity outweighed what he'd been told for the moment, as he shut the door after his lady, and stepped up to sit cross-legged on the sturdy prow of the small vessel. His glasses were once again on top of his head. This conversation was heavy and needed his full attention. So, that meant, first, waiting for the love of his life to speak, and second, making sure she could read absolutely everything that was going through his head, because he was very painfully aware that he did not explain things the right way sometimes.

"I have the facts. You have... whatever Luffy managed to convey, which is never the facts and certainly not the whole of it, because when has our dearly beloved captain ever had the whole of anything," her voice was as close to sharp and cold as it ever got at the mention of the pirate king and was most telling of her true anger.

She didn't show her emotions lightly, especially not that one, even with him. Her calm was legendary. So, that slight bit of edge to her voice spoke endless volumes about how downright furious she really was about everything. She could usually forgive Luffy his faults, because that was just how he was, but NOT when it hurt their Nakama, his very own wife.

"So… tell me what Luffy told you and we'll clear things up from there."

Again, his right hand slid down into his lap, just barely away from his genitals, in an unconscious gesture of nerves, but his left, which he usually kept at the ready due to its arsenal, he slid up into his Mohawk. "He said she cheated on him. That he had proof of it 'cause she was knocked up, and everybody knows that Devil Fruit users can't have kids." He winced slightly at that, but plowed through it, "He said that she'd been sneaking off, having secret meetings with people fer months and not tellin' him a damn thing about 'em. And he put the numbers t'gether when he realized she was gettin' thick 'round the middle."

Robin sighed, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "...I see. How... unfortunate. Luffy, as we well know, once he's decided that he's figured something out, nothing can change his mind. It's... such a shame. His... calculations," her voice was cold, devoid of any emotion at all, "were missing a vital 'number'. I happened to have noticed our very own genius doctor visiting Raftel much more often than usual of late, and often conferring with other minds of his level such as Trafalgar-san. But there's nothing for it now, I guess." She heaved a deep sigh, leaning on the railing. "...we have to protect her. Her and the babe. Without Luffy's protection, without Zoro... even if Sanji is on her side, without the protection of the entire Monster Trio..." her voice broke for a moment and she closed her eyes, a fist pressing to her chest as she breathed deeply. Even the thought was enough to grieve her deeply. "...We have to hide her, Franky." Her eyes cut to his, dark and serious and scared. "We won't be enough. She might not realize it yet, but now, from this moment onward—no, from the second Luffy reached the wrong conclusion, stormed off and withdrew his protection... Nami has been marked for death."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Aww! I've gotten so many awesome reviews on this so far! Sorry for making you guys wait, work was busy as hell lately. OTL Enjoy~!

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**Chapter 2: Trouble at the Floating Restaurant! Luffy Aboard the All Blue!**

Meanwhile, aboard the ship named for a legend, the king of the Pirates paced. He never paced, but he was pacing. He was furious, and though ranting had helped for a short while, now he was full of nervous energy that he just couldn't seem to burn. He rounded on the gathered group of Strawhats, and threw his hands up in the air, fortunately not stretching them.

"Now what?"

Zoro shrugged, stretching his legs out in front of him under the table and leaning back against the wall. "You already kicked her out right? Not much else to do."

Brook, in his strange skeleton way, frowned. Being the eldest of the entire crew, he knew some things about life in general the rest tended to overlook. "In my day, such a thing wouldn't have been so terrible. I'm afraid I'm still not understanding why you're quite so upset."

"She hid it from me! And then denied it when I asked her about it. She admitted she's pregnant but refuses to tell me who, or why, or even when it happened." Luffy frowned at the floor, crossing his arms over his chest, which inadvertently pulled his coat tight across his shoulders with an ominous crack. "If she hadn't been so obvious... how can I trust her, Brook? She lied to me."

The owner of the restaurant-ship sat next to his lover, and took a long, slow drag on his cigarette. "She may not always be completely honest, Luffy, but she's always been loyal. Something about this isn't right," He knew it was stupid question but he had to ask anyway, "Are you absolutely sure she's slept with someone else?"

"How else would you explain it, Sanji!? I can't get her pregnant. No Devil Fruit user can! You know the trouble Franky and Robin went through last year." He was pacing again as the blond nodded, quietly thinking around his smoke.

Zoro snorted and growled like a dog; obviously, if his captain hadn't been utilizing the floor space to pace, he would have been. More than the anger of being lied to; the hurt of Nakama going behind the captain's back felt like personal betrayal. "None of it sits right with me. What's the sea-witch hiding if she's all on the up and up?!"

The cook glared but said nothing, merely blowing a cloud of smoke in his lover's face. He learned years ago that trying to change the mosshead's mind was like trying to turn the tides, but it didn't mean he had to like it, a fact he made obvious as often as he could when topics such as these were brought up.

Brook crossed his legs, looking thoughtful. "...I may be antiquated, here, but... again, I do not see what's so upsetting. Don't you suppose she refuses to admit the father because she either wants nothing to do with him or because as far as she's concerned, you, her husband, the man she loves, is the father? Such things were commonplace back when I was young. It was referred to as 'surrogate fathering'. Or, well, there's the less pleasant possibility..."

He, and possibly Sanji, were the only ones that understood what the 'less pleasant possibility' meant, probably. It was unlikely, as Nami rarely went anywhere unarmed, but there was always the possibility, no matter how slim, she was caught on a bad day unarmed and/or unaware.

To the side, the blond shuddered, gripping the table and his leg sliding underneath to touch the swordsman's for comfort. He spoke softly, as though even referring to it could make it reality, "Raftel is a dangerous place, even with you there, and you haven't always been there."

The rubber man stilled, his face aimed at the floor so that his features were in shadow and when he spoke, his voice carried the deadly calm that told those around him, he meant business, and made it obvious that, surprisingly, he actually did understand what his musician meant.

"She wouldn't admit that, would she?"

"She would never admit that," Brook said before Zoro could get a word in edgewise.

That was a good thing, because the swordsman was lost. What did danger have to do with Nami being knocked up? He frowned, but kept quiet as he scooted a bit closer to his lover, unconsciously recognizing the need for support even if he didn't fully grasp the topic of discussion.

"She knows you would react violently and probably destroy the island that is your home if she admitted that. If such a thing happened," the skeleton was quick to add. "You know how sometimes, when she gets so concerned about an oncoming storm, she'll leave her Clima-tact at home. And Luffy... being so honest does mean everyone in the world knows what your weakness is." Brook's bone-hands wrapped around his cane handle. "The whole world is aware that in order to incite your rage, they need only attack your Nakama. If they wanted to lure you into a trap, all they would have to do is hurt one of us and lie in wait for you to come get revenge."

If his features hadn't been shadowed the gathered three would have seen the way the years-old pain flashed across his face. No matter which one was in trouble, the one that still haunted him, still refused to leave him, was the one where he'd failed. His entire being was made for protecting his precious Nakama, but in that instance, with that one who'd meant so much more to him and had been with him for so long, he'd failed. That moment was etched in his memory such that even now there were days where he swore he could smell the sulfurous gas that had clouded the air, and feel the sheer oppressive heat of the enemy. Truly nothing had changed him, shaped his being more, than Ace's death.

As such, he was beginning to regret the way things had exploded. If she really had been... he shuddered, violently. He'd seen one of the girls that worked at the bar where he always hung out with Shanks come back after having had that happen, and she'd been withdrawn, secretive. He'd even go so far as to say distant. His brain worked quickly, in the manner of confident decision that it always did, re-evaluating the last several months, trying to come up with a way to fix this.

In the silence that was steadily growing heavier, Sanji could do nothing but concentrate on his breathing. To think that his precious Nami-swan may have been... he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

His voice was shaky, and tight. "Is there anything we can do, Brook?"

"We can pray that isn't what happened. But... Luffy..." His empty sockets seemed to look to one side. "...you didn't... leave her alone, did you...?"

It, or at least part of it, suddenly came to Zoro. His body stiffened. Lone pregnant woman. On Raftel. Vulnerable, and obviously so after Luffy's very loud leaving and banishing of his wife. And Nami wasn't all that strong, not really, not compared to them.

"Franky and Robin were there." Luffy squeaked.

His unconscious tilt away from the three seated males betrayed what he didn't say, and Sanji wasn't sure whether to jump the table to strangle his captain or faint. So, he settled somewhere in the middle.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR XANTHAN BASED MIND!?" Luffy winced, and the cook kept going. "This is worse than Usopp on Water 7! He, at least, had places he could go and hide!"

"Nami's smart. She'll be fine. She'll meet up with Robin and then..." The rubber man trailed off, remembering how he'd ranted at Franky before storming off the island.

Suddenly unable to stand anymore, he sank to the floor near the wall, drawing his knees up to his chin, and for all the world, looking like he was half his real age. He'd been so focused, so sure, that she'd cheated on him, had lied to him, but now, he wasn't sure of anything. The king of the pirates had never been so uncertain in his life, and it was a feeling he decided that he absolutely didn't like. It reminded him too much of fear; of being trapped and held down; of being too weak to protect what he cared about. It felt like the way the world had after Ace died. Somewhere in the distance Sanji was still ranting but lost within his own mind, attempting to make sense of things again, Luffy couldn't hear him.

The already white skeleton seemed to go whiter. "R-r-robin? Robin?! Oh God. Oh my word. Oh dear merciful heavens!" He collapsed against a bench, fanning himself. "She's... she's gone. And… we may never get her back. Because you know Robin." His sockets grew darker, seeming to deepen to pitch-black pools. "Robin is the only person who knows every hiding spot and secret place in and out of the Grand Line. If there's anyone who can hide Nami where even we couldn't find her, it would be Robin. And worse, she will be angry with you, Captain. Very angry. And when Robin gets angry..." He left it hanging.

Even Zoro shuddered at the memory of the last time Robin was really, truly, angry. There had been no escape for the sorry bastard—eyes and hands and legs everywhere turning into one massive deathtrap, inescapable, and he had suffered a long, slow, torturous death. She'd been the cat, playing with her mouse, tossing it up and letting it run before sinking her claws, over and over again, until she had tired of the game and finally ended it. Painfully.

"Wh-wh-what do I do!?" The captain wailed, throwing himself at Brook's feet because it seemed the only one who had any sense about the whole situation was the musician.

"Pray," Brooke said softly, hands on his cane. "If we're lucky, we'll intercept them before they get too far out to sea. You might be able to get on their ship because lord knows Robin is not going to let us on. If that fails... I don't know. Nami is a brilliant strategist. She'll work something out and we may never know what it is, never see her again. Especially with you denouncing the child. We may never get the truth of it really. And Robin will want to keep her from being stressed. For if she endures too much stress, you know, she may lose the child."

The potential tragedy hovered in the air like one of the navigator's famous lightning clouds, just waiting to explode over all four of them. Deciding the best thing would be for his hands to be busy with something, Sanji climbed to his feet, brushed a kiss to Zoro's temple, and made for the kitchen itself.

The room they were occupying at the moment was more a small dining room and living room combined with a semi-galley reminiscent of the one that had been on the original Going Merry. It was the first of the private quarters Franky had designed when the cook and his swordsman first decided to create the floating restaurant. To get to the public parts, there was a door on the wall to the right of the table, as well as a second door across the room that led to a small deck that doubled as landing zone for visitors. That way the Strawhats didn't need to come through the restaurant itself to see each other, and Sanji didn't have his often intimidating Nakama scaring away his customers or destroying his property.

"I'm making something, what does everyone want?" The cook took the last long drag from his cigarette and crushed it in the ashtray on the table.

Zoro grunted. "...Takoyaki," he muttered. That was comfort food. "...and dango." And the other was guilt food.

While he believed Luffy in that the child wasn't his, and he still hadn't caught on to what the others were alluding as such things never occurred to him, the fact was that one of his Nakama was vulnerable and he had agreed with, volunteered, to leave her that way. He was the first mate, responsible for the crew: it wasn't right to leave anyone unprotected, let alone one of their weaker members. And regardless of what she had or hadn't done, Nami was still a member of the crew.

Brook sighed. "If you have any leftover soup... I'm not very hungry, Sanji."

"Me either." The captain had curled in on himself, holding his legs with his face buried between his knees.

There was a moment's hesitation, but the cook nodded and left the room to do his own comforting. He couldn't fix the situation. He couldn't leave his restaurant to go look for her, and even if he did, the chances he'd find her were slim. On top of that, what if she had, in fact, cheated on Luffy? Would he even be able to confront her? She was his precious Nami-swan, and if he had ever considered seriously pursuing a woman, chances were that she'd have been his target. That put her a cut above other women as far as he was concerned. So, with nothing else that could be done, especially as the stupid Marines had yet to fix the Den Den Mushi problem that had been caused by the collapse of the World Government several years ago, Sanji did what he did best. He cooked.

Back in the other room, Luffy pulled himself over to the wall with a dejected stretch of his arm, keeping his hat down low. Truthfully, he wanted the baby, even though it wasn't his. There was no greater adventure anymore, he thought. He stared out through a gap between his arms and the brim of his hat, eyes distant and full of sorrow. How could he find her? She was his everything. Would she even want him to find her after the things he'd said? And Robin? How would he deal with Robin when she finally caught up with him again? He'd be stretched to his limits and then some. He was certain that she'd have Franky come up with some kind of torture device to dry out his skin so it wouldn't snap back again, or maybe freeze him so it turned brittle and cracked. He shuddered thinking about the possibilities, and for the first time that he could ever recall, he did exactly as Brook suggested, he prayed. He prayed she was safe. He prayed she would be happy. He prayed that she made it through this, and that Robin would leave his limbs intact. But most of all, he prayed she would come home. As that thought crossed his mind, the rubber man closed his eyes and let the sorrow that had both fed and then stolen his anger spill across his cheeks.

There came a sudden THUNK! THUNK! from the side of the ship. Franky's docking devices latching on—their ships had crossed paths.

Robin needed supplies: pregnant women needed specific nutrition, and she didn't have nearly enough raspberry tea to last to Water 7. But this was where Luffy was, and Robin knew it. She told Franky to guard the door and not let anyone, especially the rubber captain, inside.

"AH!" Luffy's head shot up and clanged against the wall. "She's here!"

He ignored his tear stains as he practically climbed the beam at his back, though he knew the surface would just give the archeologist more places from which to sprout his certain doom. He knew it was too much to hope for Robin to let him explain, and talking to Nami herself after all of this would probably just end up with him in even more trouble than he was already. So, he merely tightened his mouth and braced himself. If nothing else, he'd attempt to escape to the Mini Merry, which was what he'd used to get from Raftel to the All-Blue in the first place.

In the kitchen, Sanji sighed, pulling raspberry leaves out to steep, and collecting an assortment of soda crackers to top with everything from apple slices to a zucchini paste he'd created the last time he had served a pregnant customer. Arranged beautifully on a tray, he brought the previously ordered dishes to his marimo and the musician, before stepping up to the door that led outside, hoping to have it open before his lovely Robin-chwan, in her justified rage, did any damage to it.

Unfortunately the archeologist beat him to the entrance, but was frightfully calm, given the situation. "Ah, thank you, cook-san."

Her eyes flashed though, peering behind him. As long as she had a line of sight, she could bloom her appendages anywhere she could see. She growled when she was blocked by a white-clad bronze chest.

"Step aside, Zoro."

The swordsman held firm. "No. You'll do something irrational."

"Step aside."

His black stare bore into her blackened stare. "I refuse. Out of everyone, you're most likely to kill him if you vent your anger on him. Unless I get a promise not to kill, you'd better just take that to Franky."

A line of arms sprouted, carrying the tray from hand to hand back to her own ship, where an entirely too-cheerful voice cooed from inside, "Ooh! Sanji-kun! Pickles!"

The cook melted a little, a stray heart floating up to twirl next to his ear, but he knew better than to move. Forward lay the chance of crossing Robin's wrath, and backward would mean more of his own beloved would be in danger. Regardless of who the threat was, the blond would not allow his marimo to be injured deliberately.

The stoic woman kept her stare locked with Zoro's for a minute more. Then a dangerous smile appeared on her face—Franky would have been able to identify it from a mile away with a shudder. The 'you have just made a severe blunder and I'm about to take full advantage of it' smile.

"Very well, Swordsman-san. I promise, no killing."

Zoro felt abruptly uneasy, very uneasy. All of his hair stood on end. But reluctantly, he stepped aside.

The archaeologist's stare cut all the way back to where the captain was still backed up into a wall. At that moment said wall sprouted arms. Everywhere, arms. And each one seized a little bit of rubbery flesh and started to pull, until there was a sheet of rubber man from corner to corner of the room.

Luffy gritted his teeth. He couldn't help fighting against the pulling thanks to his nerves about being frozen or dried out, but doing so meant that the action was quite agonizing. His mind ran in a circle of self-blame. He deserved to be stretched beyond his limits for what he'd done, but if he let her do that he could never make up for it, even if it sounded like something impossible to achieve just then.

Sanji took the moment to step around Robin to the dock and greet the shipwright. The two exchanged a nod, but said nothing, preferring to keep their attention on probably the only woman in the world that was capable of killing the king of the pirates without a blade. The silent conversation held the fact that should something be destroyed in the process of punishing the captain, the cyborg would gladly fix it. The blond pulled a hand-rolled smoke from his pocket, and the blunet used his finger-blowtorch as a lighter to sort of seal the deal. Then both were drawn back to the altercation between captain and archeologist.

"Ngh." The rubber man tried to close his eyes, only he found that he couldn't, and he had to breathe heavily through his nose for the way that his lips were stretched to prevent him from speaking.

Robin's eyes were cold as she held him there. So cold they burned. "You, my captain, are a very, very lucky man. One, because I'm really not going to kill you, since you taught me the treasure of Nakama so long ago. But bear in mind, I am very. Angry. With you. I don't know when it's going to taper off, if ever. But the other reason you're lucky is because I'm relatively certain she still loves you. And I will never inflict permanent harm to my Nakama by hurting someone they care about. So," Two of the hands let go of his head, enough he could breathe easier. "I am going to take Nami wherever she wants to go. I might even, after a while, tell you where. Where she goes from there, however, not even I will be aware. And Nami is smart; very, very smart. She knows she and the little one will be in danger if they linger long. You had better hope she lets you catch up, if she chooses to let you know if she's even alive after the baby comes."

Monkey D. Luffy didn't give up, it just wasn't in his nature to give up, but yet, standing there, immobilized, with the love of his life threatening to sail away forever, he found there was nothing else he could do. Any words he said would simply make her run further, faster, because no matter how much he meant them, he knew she wouldn't believe him. So, he hung his head as best he could while still stretched.

"Just... keep them safe."

Zoro shuddered. He couldn't watch this. He couldn't hear it. To have Nakama at odds… again... it chilled him to his bones. Sanji and Franky also looked away, between the fury in the dark-haired woman and the defeat in the proudest man in the world; it simply wasn't something any of them could watch for long. Worse still, the implication that Robin could do what she wanted with the rubber man was more horrifying than anything she had actually done. The cloud of negativity hanging over the group was so cold even Brook shivered a little, the bones of his rib cage making a rattle-type noise in the tense silence.

She released him completely.

"That, I can do. For a time. When it gets out..." her eyes closed, in that instant the pain of the situation obvious in her own frame. "Numbers don't always add up properly captain. Calculations go wrong. Step carefully. You are the one who hurt her and, one day, you will be the only one who can fix it. Not now. The hurt is too new. But one day, soon. Within the year." Her face loomed from the doorway, serious and dark. "You will heal her, because you are the one she needs, the one she loves. But only when she's ready. Am I clear?"

"Aah." Was all he said, rolling his shoulders to work out the kinks and keeping his hat low.

He turned his back to them all, paused for a moment, as though he was going to say something, but didn't, leaving the gathering through the door that led to the restaurant itself. Whether he was going to simply stay out of the way, or heading for the Mini Merry, nobody was quite sure, but the fact was he left, so far that even his aura dimmed out of their senses, for all the sorrow it held before disappearing.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** OMG YOU GUYS! ^_^ Thank you so much! I'm so happy you guys like this! I was worried it wouldn't be like because it wasn't noticed very well when I posted it for OPBigBang. But you guys are so sweet! Thank you for all the reviews! Work has be really hectic, but I promise I'll keep updating as soon as I can. Enjoy~!

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**Chapter 3: Nami versus the World! Robin Knows Best!**

Sanji was the first to speak into the silence that followed, "I have most of what you need, Robin-chan, but someone needs to get a messenger bird to Chopper. She needs to be examined. Regardless of how the baby came about, all of this stress can't be good for it, or her."

"I know, but he was recently called up to Skypiea. Some sort of epidemic affecting those tiny wings the residents have, a feather-rot that gets into their bones," Robin said, the flame of her anger banked for the time being, and just exhausted in general. "You know how hard it is to get any messages to Skypiea."

Zoro grunted. "Someone'll have to go get him then."

Robin's sharp glare turned on him.

He shifted uncomfortably. "...you know I can't go on my own."

"Especially without your navigator to guide your broken compass," was Robin's barbed agreement, her voice as sharp as her stare.

"I suppose the Old Geezer could watch over things for a while. It'll take him a week or so to get here if Brook would be willing to pick him up." Sanji stroked his goatee, now even more fully grown in than it had been after the Okama Incident, which made him downright refuse to be clean shaven.

The skeleton nodded, "Of course, I would be glad to retrieve Zeff, but I could just as easily travel to Chopper, no? Yohohohoho. I've heard tell that Skypeian ladies are much less guarded about their panties."

A collective groan and Sanji's glare almost knocked the musician from his seat, but all were so used to his perpetual quest for women's undergarments that the comment was mostly brushed aside in favor of the much more pressing topic at hand.

"We could get Usopp to join once we get to Water 7, Bobby." Franky scratched absently at his right bicep. "And the punks under Bakaburg could look after Nams 'til she figures out where she's goin' from there."

Robin turned on her other half. "Nami isn't safe," she said flatly. "In the time it takes us to gather the crew, in the time it would even take to send Brook to get Chopper now, Nami could be dead by morning. None of you understand. Even before she left Raftel, she has been a target. By now, it'll be all over the island, by morning, the Line, and within three days the entire world will know that Nami is vulnerable. You have no idea what it means to be targeted by everyone you meet, everywhere you go. Nowhere is safe. Nothing is sacred. She needs a team she can trust, and right now?" Her glare was hair-raising. "She cannot trust this crew. Not in its entirety, not after what Luffy did and said. We are not enough. And there is no time to be waiting."

Zoro scoffed. "Oh please, as if it's that bad."

She whirled on him and the next thing he knew he was in a choke-hold with the wall.

"Shut your mouth, bounty hunter," she was bristling, "do you have even the faintest clue what it's like to be the prey? To know no shop owner, no elder, no island is safe, to know that every step you take may be your last, to know there is only an everlasting chase, that the only thing to do is run until your last breath?!"

Her eyes were tearing without control. These were painful memories. It had been a painful existence. To have been a child was bad enough, but to be with child and attempt to endure that? It would have been nigh-impossible.

The expression brought an equal reaction from those around her.

"O-oi! R-Robin-chwan..." Sanji reached out a hand, which almost imperceptibly shook. The only thing that could burn through his nicotine that quickly was his Marimo's life being in danger. "W-what about somewhere in the South Blue? No one goes there because it's more ocean than islands. We could take care of her. She doesn't have to face this alone. We may not completely understand what happened between them, but both Luffy and Nami-swan are our Nakama, and we'll move the world before we let one be killed."

Franky stepped up, "He's right, babe. We went into Enies Lobby for you. We took on Blackbeard and his shit. We've taken down the Shichibukai and the World Government. We can take care of her. Promise. It's not like it was back then. She's got a crew that cares for her."

"You're not getting it!" Her voice was rough as she released Zoro, leaving him to cough against the wall as he sank to his knees. "The world is still full of greed! Taking down the worst, most cancerous sore helped, yes, but there is still corruption! There is still greed! There is still cruelty! We all know there are hundreds gunning for Luffy's title and his spot, just among the pirates! And what Marine wouldn't want to capture the greatest thief of all time, Cat Burglar Nami?! They might not hurt her, but the sheer stress would cause a miscarriage, and don't even get me started on the Revolutionaries, much as I like them, all those warriors have no respect for a pregnant woman, and many would pressure Nami, looking for power, or assurances, or something. You know full well Sabo and Dragon have little control this far away from their headquarters. Anyone she meets could sell the right information to the wrong personage and—" she began to sob. "You don't know what it's like! The price of being well-known and powerful is that danger will come looking for you. The sheer numbers will overwhelm us, get around us, she isn't safe! She has to go into hiding where no one knows her!"

Instantly, Franky was holding her, big, strong arms wrapping his flower in the most gentle of holds he could manage. "Shh. We'll get her to safety. I'm sure there's somebody who'll be able to hide her. If... if I thought she'd make the trip, I was gonna say bring her to Skypiea, but that current ain't safe, even without the little one to think of."

"I already have plans, if you don't mind."

The ginger-haired navigator stepped in from the dock with more confidence than she really felt. Though she was certain that her now-ex-husband was gone, the cautions about Zoro and the fear that the others might turn on her as well coiled like a frozen snake in her stomach.

So, she came up with a plan, as usual, "Sanji-kun, if I could have more of the pickles and tuna paste, please?"

"H-hai, Nami-swan!" The blond responded with only a slight hesitation as he handed his lover a mug of the tea from before to soothe the swordsman's throat. Then he gave a few half-enthusiastic hearts in her direction.

Zoro, just about to take a sip, turned slightly green. Pickles and tuna paste?! Swallowing, he gingerly put the cup aside, suddenly not trusting his stomach. He… he was just going to sit quietly in his corner right now. He'd never seen Robin this out of control and it honestly scared him.

The archeologist herself pressed into her lover and did her best to dry her tears. She managed to get back her usual calm with a few snickers, and slightly red eyes. "Oh good. You are our best strategist and planner," she said, though a bit watery. "I'm afraid I'm not at my best for this, with all the memories and emotions interfering."

Nami smiled, and tossed her hair with a bit of false pride, "Of course. We discussed before what would happen if I ever had to leave the island, and as long as we get to them before word does, I can blackmail each and every one of them into being my personal bodyguards for as long as I need. Most of all that one. Though, when we get to Water 7, I'll need to get in touch with Kokoro-san."

Franky frowned ever so slightly, beginning to get an idea of what she had in mind, but said nothing as Sanji waltzed back in with a plate covered in more of the soda crackers.

Zoro tried not to look, the scent of the treat far worse than what his imagination had conjured. "Who's the 'we' that you discussed this with... that you'd have bodyguards better than your own Nakama?"

Robin glared at him again—she'd been over this—and in response Zoro noticeably shifted closer to his lover.

"Never you mind your fuzzy green head over it. It's better if you didn't know. That way nobody can use the information against us. Besides which, they prefer to remain anonymous when they're working. I've already taken the liberty of using one of the All-Blue's messenger birds to send word ahead to be waiting for me." The navigator's nose was in the air, baiting the swordsman as a defense mechanism.

The cook deliberately stepped in front of the marimo, a hand resting on the broader man's shoulder in silent support and restraint that kept Zoro's mouth shut, "Not that it's any trouble, Nami-swan, but are you and Robin-chwan absolutely certain that we can't protect you? I mean, I'm sure whoever you have lined up is capable and all, but there's no one in the world who's stronger than us."

"Only when we fight as a team," Brook suddenly said, standing. "And we have to be a team because with one of our number missing, and the possible infighting, we will appear weak. And our enemies know it, isn't that right, Lady Nami? By the way, congratulations. Though it appears things have changed greatly since I died, I have always been of the opinion a life is a life, and all children are still children who need love and protection. If ever you need me, I am ever at your service."

Most of the others around the room jumped, his presence having been almost forgotten. His face was solemn, and he tipped his hat to Nami. His full, gentlemanly bow was something of a bygone era, but perhaps something that should have stayed rather than faded into the past.

Robin gave a semi-wobbly smile. "Like I said, Nami, we'll take you wherever you need to go."

"Th-thank you, Brook. Robin."

The navigator's voice shook at the first positive statement she'd heard regarding this thing that she'd worked so hard to achieve. It proved to be too much for her fragile state, shattering her previous air of confidence. Her first sign of things not quite being right was the way her face clouded over and the cloak still around her body shifted, indicating that she'd moved the hand she had hidden. Why, oh why, couldn't that have been what he had said first?!

Though she'd thought it over, she had decided she couldn't take any of them with her. Luffy would need them more than she would. She was sure of it. Call it navigator's intuition, but she could sense rough weather ahead. The kind that usually meant people's lives were in danger and, generally speaking, brought the Nakama even closer together than they already were. The sudden tears that accompanied that thought had the redhead whipping around to hide them in the safety and darkness of the Mecha Lotus' galley.

Torn between following his mellorine, and protecting his Marimo, Sanji looked to Robin, "Is she ok?"

The brunette shook her head, but couldn't find the words.

"No, she will not be 'ok' for a very long time," Brook said solemnly. "Children, my friend, are often the breaking point of any relationship. Saying bad things about the miracle of life as Luffy did... well... that not only hurts the mother terribly, it invites disaster upon the infant, and no child deserves to have its life cut off before it can even begin," his voice was low, and if it was a little harsh and thick, it could be blamed on his old-fashioned view of the world. "I'm afraid she may never trust anyone fully ever again. The man she loved and trusted most turned on her. That is not something anyone recovers from easily, if at all. That, I know, has never changed."

"But... and I blame the stupid Marimo for the fact that I am even saying this, we still don't know if Luffy was the one to turn on her first. What if she wasn't..." Sanji paused, "What if, may the Sea ruin my tongue, what if Luffy's right?" Holding up his hands in defense, he pushed forward before anyone could say anything. "I know! I know! She's been our trusted navigator for years, but the possibility still remains that she cheated on him. You all know how trusting Luffy is. What do you think his response would be if that trust was broken? Possibly not even just once. We've all been out living our dreams; can a single one of you actually, honestly, tell me that things haven't been brewing between them under the surface? When he was here Luffy spoke several times about feeling like she was being sneaky and secretive over the last few months. We haven't been near Raftel until yesterday."

"We were in Alabasta, helping to recover the poneglyph." Franky looked to the side, sucking his teeth.

Brook gave them a flat look that was too much like Robin's: it spoke volumes. "Regardless of where the child came from, it is a child. In my time, a woman often, if she found her husband sterile, could and would seek out someone to give her that child without ever truly straying from her husband. As far as anyone was concerned, her husband did father the child even if everyone knew he'd been cuckolded. It didn't matter." His cane thumped the floor with a sound like thunder. "If she did cheat, something I deeply doubt, I do not think it would be a breach of trust so much as a means to an end. Haven't we all done things we are not proud of, things we never have and never will speak of, in order to achieve a goal?"

An almost imperceptible pause took the other four off guard under the skeleton's inky gaze as all gathered in the room knew the answer to that question was a resounding 'yes'.

"W-wait! I'm not saying that! We all know too well the price of Devil Fruit users when it comes to children." Sanji cleared his suddenly tight throat, and Franky sniffed, deliberately not looking at anyone, as the cook continued. "Yes, we've all done things we shouldn't even contemplate, let alone speak about, and of course, the child needs to be protected. All of us here know what it's like growing up without protection. Some more than others," he nodded sympathetically at Robin, "but we can't just lump all of the blame on Luffy. You saw how defeated he was. I think he was confronted with something he couldn't understand, and it made him jump to conclusions. He isn't the sharpest knife in the block. I just think if this was something they'd talked about, he would have reacted differently, and as far as I am concerned, at least having talked about it, there would be no betrayal. It would be an agreed upon course of action. So, either, she was raped and refuses to admit it, or she did betray him by doing this behind his back." Suddenly exhausted, apparently from having to talk down about his beloved mellorine, Sanji sank to Zoro's lap, shaking a bit more violently. "I... I need a smoke."

From apparently nowhere Zoro produced a cigarette, which he put between the cook's lips, and a lighter, which he used to flick a flame into being that he held for his lover's convenience. Sometimes it was just those little intimate details that could offer comfort.

Robin sighed. "Perhaps... but there are some things a woman just... just does not discuss! Not with her husband especially! Child-related issues in particular can be... jarring... terrifying... painful... it hurts bad enough. We've no wish to drag the people we love into it with us."

Brooke nodded. "You both have a point. Perhaps she should have talked it over with him first. Probably so, in fact, but simply put, we really just don't know what the Hell is going on—pardon my language—and the only one who could clear it up is clearly not talking. After what has happened, I cannot blame her. I repeat my earlier prediction: we may never, in fact will probably never know the truth of it."

Sweet, sweet, blessed nicotine flooded the cook's veins as he listened to the exchange among the other three, leaning against his lover. Franky was holding the ebony-haired woman tighter and murmuring something that the blond couldn't hear into her delicate ear. The struggles of the last year and a half would have to be all the more painful for the pair now that conception among their crew had actually been achieved. Let alone the possibility of his precious mellorine being raped. It took him several minutes but by the time he'd burned through half of his cancer stick, the tremors of withdrawal were gone and he was rock steady as ever. So with a final turn to his swordsman that put his nose under the mosshead's chin, Sanji climbed to his feet, looking for all the world like things weren't blowing up in their faces, as usual.

"Robin-chwan, the Marimo and I will gather your provisions together. Then you'd best make haste. As much as we all would rather you didn't, you have made some very important points this evening, and Nami-swan obviously has her plan all worked out. So, what else can we do but give what support we can in the places we're allowed." He gave a small bow, and turned on his heel with a sideways glance to his partner, "Mosshead..."

"M' comin'."

The bigger male grunted as he got to his heavy feet and trailed after his life partner. He still was on Luffy's side, but he was seeing, quite sensibly, that sides didn't much matter. Not while Nakama was in danger, regardless which side was right. He'd have to put his faith in Nami's devious brain. He didn't trust her, exactly, but he trusted her ability to wriggle out of whatever situation into which she ended up.

As soon as the other two were gone, Franky ran his thumb across his lady's cheek, whisking away the tears he was sure she hadn't realized were there. This wasn't completely about Nami, and he knew it, but there wasn't much he could do outside of reminding the amazing woman he lived with that as always they'd get through this crisis the same way they always had. And though things looked bleak at the moment, they'd pull through.

He didn't know what to believe as far as how things had happened but he tended to side with Brook about it. Regardless of how, it had happened, and the intelligent thing to do was to move forward from there in what he desperately hoped was the right direction. Logic stated that with the navigator as the focal point of the whole situation, she'd guide them the way she always did, but that was assuming that the rest of the crew supported her in the way she needed them.

As soon as he was certain that the trembling under his steel covered limbs had settled, he pulled back testingly.

"The Lotus needs a re-fuel if we're gonna reach Water 7 before the end o' the month." The unspoken 'are you ok?' hung between them.

Robin chuckled and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "That won't be a problem. However, if we can, we'd best stock as much cola as we can carry. We need to travel as fast as possible. No matter what the plan is, the faster we can implement it, the better." _Yes. We can talk later, but we have more pressing concerns just now._

"Right." The cyborg nodded and moved off to the kitchen, pushing the door open with another loud "Ow!" designed to clear the lingering tension in the air.

That re-stocking was probably the fastest, most efficient endeavor the Strawhats had ever accomplished. No one much said anything, and several of the burly cooks that worked under Sanji made a 'bucket line', so to speak, so that the crates of foodstuffs and cola could be handed man to man from storeroom to ship as quickly as they could. The air hovering around the five pirates kept those newcomers from even looking at what they were carrying other than to check for shelf-stability and fragility. So, within the hour, the Mecha Lotus was filled to bursting, her engines fully re-charged with enough left over that if they wanted, and were judicial about rationing it, they could probably make it all the way to Reverse Mountain before needing to stock up again.

As the last crate was loaded, Sanji danced out onto the deck, tiny hearts following his pace. "Robin-chwan, Nami-swan!" He said, holding out a covered tray for the ladies to take. "Dinner, courtesy of the All-Blue. Be swift, my lovelies! Be safe."

Knowing exactly how heartfelt and serious those words were, Robin's eyes were soft, and her voice held more emotion than anyone had heard in it for years, as she nodded her head formally and bore Sanji's gift to the galley in a couple of spare hands. "Thank you, Cook-san."

Zoro watched the archaeologist herd her lover and the sea-witch onto the Lotus and stared, frowning, as the docking mechanism retracted and locked in place. Leaning on the railing, when smoke drifted by, he shifted.

His voice was low, wary. "...this will be a bad one."

"Yeah." The blond exhaled slowly, and as the little flower shaped vessel disappeared into the distance, he called, "You can come down now. Dinner's ready and I know you're starving, even if you don't want to eat, shithead."

A lazy, sandal-clad foot stretched down from the roof of the All-Blue, followed by the rest of the rubber man entirely too gently to mesh with his normally boisterous appearance. His eyes remained glued on the tiny ship getting smaller.

"Aah."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** You guys are so sweet! This fic has the fastest review count of all of them. Makes me a little embarrassed that this chapter is so short. I'mm update again soon! Promise! Enjoy~!

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**Chapter 4: The Past Returns! Enemies No More!**

During the journey, bird messengers had been sent and received. Everything was all arranged, and, in the shady little bar not too far from Galley-La's Dock One was the welcoming party; three men who thought they'd never again set foot in the city that was one of the Grand Line's major trading hubs. Two of them sat in a carefully casual way that made them somehow blend in despite the iconic features that would ordinarily have made them stand out; just as they had years ago when the Strawhats had first blown through the town. But then again, they were professionals. Going unnoticed was a specialty. The third man stood behind the same counter he'd used as his cover the first time, polishing glasses, and for all the world looking like the barkeeper that was his persona. All three were skilled enough that under their assumed calm façade they were ready for any hint of trouble, ready to deal with it even before any of the civilian patrons would catch wind of it. All in all, everything was in position to go off without a hitch; the only thing left to do was wait.

At that moment, an excitable young woman that had been an even more excitable child during that previous incident burst into the bar, with a laugh, carrying a small blue cat-rabbit. "Grandma said I should get some juice juice, Gonbe!"

"Nyah! Nyah!" The animal that shared the name grinned, as they pounced on the nearest bar stool.

Behind them, one of the two men rolled his eyes, hidden by the baseball cap pulled low over his entirely too-recognizable nose, and sipped from his own drink, listening carefully. This was the signal. The young woman took her juice, but instead of drinking, held it up to look through the bottom of the glass.

"Aw, Gonbe! I wanted orange juice. This is mikan!" She pouted, but drank it anyway, and gave a small shiver, "Eh. Too hot, the stuff I get in the backstreets is better. C'mon, Gonbe, we'll go tell Grandma that it's better for kitties like you to go out at night, not now!"

With that she dashed out of the bar again, leaving many of the patrons who weren't Water 7 natives wondering just what the random young woman had been talking about. To the three men for whom it was intended however, the message was clear. The target had arrived, via Scrap Island thanks to the crowd of people flocking to witness the unveiling of Galley-La's latest achievement: a sky train, named Puffing Frank, designed specifically to connect Skypiea with the rest of the world. They also understood that one of their number should come pick her up after nightfall, when there was likely to be less commotion.

The tallest of the three adjusted his top hat, which despite the need for disguise he felt justified in keeping. The only ones who'd recognize it either were okay with him or long dead. This was the signal of 'that's the plan, we stick to it. No deviations necessary'. Despite being a rather large, lanky man, the way he sat in his corner made him appear squat and unnoticeable.

The man behind the bar, 'Gonbe', continued on with his job, but three bottles of cola were surreptitiously stowed in his fridge. A stock for a particular 'customer' to fuel up in case of trouble.

Said customer did arrive a short time later, flanked on either side by the two girls he'd always traveled with when he lived there full-time. He sauntered up to the bar, putting on the air of being the womanizing thug, slid his sunglasses down his metal nose, and gave a feral grin, "Fill me up, 'Gonbe'."

"Still don't know why he chose the girl's pet's name for his own." The man in the ball cap muttered almost silently about the bartender.

He had to fight the urge to glare at the man he'd known as a hoodlum and a criminal way back when, as the large man behind the counter silently got out the bottles and handed them over in a smooth movement with a little half-smile, just as he always had.

"It's as good a cover as any," the supposedly squat male in the corner replied in the same almost-silent murmur, almost like he was talking to himself as his tall hat shaded his eyes. "After all, after the last one was blown, everyone would recognize him since this is still referred to as his bar."

"He didn't even change his hair." The first responded, apparently ignoring the goings on of the others in the bar. "At least everyone else was intelligent enough to alter our appearances."

He didn't mention his nose, as there was little he could do about it, but he had grown his hair out and now sported a goatee that was thin around his mouth and hung down like a goat's beard from the base of his chin by about two inches.

There came a low growl on that odd sound length. It was almost like their own private audio channel. "Few that are spry enough to come to a bar recall it, and he had to be identifiable to the client."

The second man still got very touchy about having shaved off his uniquely-shaped beard and his previously luxurious curls in exchange for short, choppy strands. His neck got cold and the sharp ends both tickled and itched. He hated it.

All the square-nosed man replied with was a grunt that was almost more a different language than a sound, as he drained the last of his drink and stood, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched and affecting a limp.

"Mah, Koro-kun, ya git more stingy ev'rytime we come 'ere." He fished a few beri coins from his pocket to put on the table, his accent thick, but his voice louder than their previous conversation. "Nest time, th' drinks're on yew. I've jus' 'bout burned through m'coffer this week. Feh."

The apparently short man stood up, and he turned out to be very tall and slightly crooked, like he'd spent too much time bent over his work. He too had a thick accent and a slightly louder voice. "Aye, n' eff m'wife's left enno' fer vittles, ah'll pay on m'turn, Tommy."

"Feh." 'Tommy' said again, "Slipp'ry one she is."

Then he made to leave the bar, deliberately leaning heavily to one side, and glanced out from under his cap over his shoulder at the blue-haired cyborg at the bar with a barely imperceptible nod. He received a salute that looked like the other man was just scratching his head. The message had been sent, received and replied to; now all that was left was to wait for nightfall, which wasn't far off, judging by the angle of the shadows.

'Koro-kun' hobbled after him with an odd, peculiar lope often seen in older carpenters, developed over a lifetime of hauling timber, with a tip of his hat in the 'bartender's' direction. This was answered with a head-tilt that appeared to be the big barman cracking his neck. The door would be ready when and where they needed it.

Shortly after exiting the building, the crooked man lapsed into a shadow. If anyone noticed a particularly large alley cat following around a local gimp, they wouldn't think anything of it. Or, at least, most didn't. As the two disappeared into the alley, a fairly tall man, with wavy blue hair pulled back into a low ponytail tilted his head. The sunlight glinted off the lavender lenses of his sunglasses, and his eyebrow arched.

"Well, well, well… look who's back in town." He murmured, drawing a piece of paper from his belt.

He scribbled a short note, and strode quickly to the closest post office. The captain would want to know about that. Especially if the scuttlebutt around town about the Pirate Queen was to be believed. This could very well be the chance their crew had been waiting for since the death of their leader. As he walked, a second piece of paper fluttered from his long, fur coat. Nothing was written on it except for a symbol: a canceled smiley face with a grin that stretched from one side to the other, displaying entirely too many squared-off teeth.

Night came swiftly, and all around the city, more loud and boisterous than usual, the previous members of the Franky Family created disturbances. Mostly parties and goings on, but a couple of bar fights, and in one place, the attempted break-in of the neighborhood's resident yagara breeder. This kept the authorities of the city occupied, and left a defined silent, darkened path for one ginger-haired navigator to escape from the company of her dearest friends.

She knew she should have let them know the rest of what she'd planned, but she just couldn't risk one of them being caught by any of Luffy's enemies. So, as soon as she was certain the household was at least pretending to be asleep, Nami slipped out of the back door and into the gathered darkness. She tore down the streets as fast as she thought she could get away with, reaching the bar where the message had been delivered roughly half an hour after setting out on a deliberately backtracking and winding path. She clutched her hood together and pushed through the swinging doors, on edge and her other hand wrapped comfortingly around the cool metal of her Clima-tact.

The bar was curiously clear of customers, probably due to the rather large cloud of greenish gas that was currently escaping out the window as the bartender cut a door in the middle of the establishment.

"Hurry now," he murmured, "that stink bomb won't keep them out for long."

On the other side of the door was what looked like an underground tunnel, and a massive sharp-eyed, spotted yellow cat was waiting for her.

Without looking back, Nami stepped into the tunnel. Though she felt no safer among these than she had walking around on her own, the threat from each of them was well-known, for all that she was sure they'd grown stronger over the years since last they'd crossed paths. She didn't speak until she heard the 'door' shut behind her. Then she dropped her hood, in that non-space, and greeted the cat.

"Lucci."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Finally updated all the way on DA. X''D Didn't mean for it to go on this long, life just gets in the way sometimes. You guys continue to be amazing about this fic! I'm so glad you all love it so much! As for your questions, all will be revealed in due time. Fufufu~!

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**Chapter 5: Help Usopp! Attack on the Going Merry II!**

On the deck of the Going Merry II, four weeks later, the Great Captain Usopp tumbled across the wooden planks, bouncing onto his feet with his Kuro Kabuto aimed and ready. He gave a hearty, proud laugh, and launched the small round sack from the modified slingshot.

"Flying Fish Star!" He declared as the balloon exploded against its target, showering the poor man with ice cold water.

It wasn't a big deal exactly, as the weather was hot and sunny, but it was a shock and the man, who had previously been a servant of the sniper's wife's house in Syrup Village, jumped around on the prow of the caravel like a crab, trying to keep the freezing droplets from running down his back unsuccessfully.

"Yosh! The Great Captain~ Usopp strikes again!" The curly-haired sniper posed for the woman of his dreams, with a bedsheet tied around his neck like a cape.

"Uh, Captain? We-we have a-a-a problem," the lookout called down from the crow's nest.

He was seeing something impossible, something terrifying: a ship flying a flag with the symbol of a man known to be some years dead. It was either a ghost ship or... something much worse, a copycat.

The captain of that vessel stood with his arms crossed, a demented grin on his face and the wind blowing his short blond hair back from his eyes as he set sight on his prey.

"Eh?" The sniper frowned and pulled his goggles to his eyes, scanning the water in the direction of the lookout. "Wh-wh-WHAT?! AAHHHHHH! BATTLE STATIONS!" The men aboard the Merry II looked at their self-appointed captain for a few moments, blinking, as the brunette's knees were shaking horribly. "M-m-man the cannons! For God's sake!"

The second order did it, and the few that had traveled with them from the East Blue did exactly that. Hoisting sails for speed. Someone at the tiller for control. And everyone else taking up rifles and other long-range weapons, as the double Rogers on the main mast flapped angrily in the same wind bearing the enemy. The higher, larger black flag bore the symbol the world knew as the Pirate King, the Straw Hat atop a grinning skull and crossbones, but beneath it, the placement marking the Going Merry II as subordinate to the Mugiwara, flew a second Jolly Roger, a skull and crossbones with an screaming style mouth, proclaiming them to be the Usopp Pirates.

And if there was one thing the Usopp Pirates knew it was distance fighting. Ninjin, Tamanegi, and Piiman flanked their captain, each armed with similar kabuto. As soon as everyone was in position, the sniper's nerves actually calmed somewhat. They'd known this could happen, and they'd trained for it. All they had to do was sink the ship before it could get too close.

"Yosh. Kaya-koi, hide in the galley. You shouldn't see this; the sheer power of the Usopp Pirates could very well blind you as it did the strongest of warriors from Elbaf!" Usopp laughed louder to cover his worry—the man was dead, and this shouldn't have been possible.

Donquixote Doflamingo, curse that demented pink bastard's soul, had, at the pinnacle of his power, a reach that stretched across the globe. No one on the seas had been able to completely escape him. But, somehow, one of his toys had managed to live—this toy. He had been a favorite for a very short time because of his striking resemblance to Don, except for the scar above his right eye and being obviously much smaller. To boot, this one had reason to hate Luffy and his crew in particular: they had been the former shichibukai's excuse to discard him like so much rubbish. If he'd been more inclined to think logically about it, the fact that Don had discarded him probably aided in his, and most of his crew's escape, but this man didn't think logically. Considering how well, and how often Don had played with him, it was a wonder the man could think at all.

A grin more suited to a demon from Hell or a wild beast split his face, and he crouched, quite literally coiling his strength. It wouldn't be long now, and then he could mop the floor with the damned straw-hat bastard who'd handed him his first and most humiliating defeat. He still had the faint imprint of the asshole's fist in the side of his skull.

"FIRE!" Usopp screamed, as soon as the other ship was in range.

He would take no chances. There were few flags that Luffy demanded be retired, and this was one of them. The mere fact that the person, whoever he was, had the gall to fly that flag incurred the Strawhats' wrath. The fact that the enemy ship was also bearing down on them without slowing gave another good indication that this was not a friendly social call, as many of the other encounters had been for the mostly timid villagers intent on accompanying Ms. Kaya on her trip down the Grand Line to Raftel to see the Pirate King for the first time in many years. So, as cannon balls flew, exploding bullets rained, and the sniper's own personal armament was launched, no one was quite ready for, or heard, the coiling of springs.

Then Kaya screamed, and Usopp whipped around faster than any of the gathered fighters had ever seen before. "Let her go!"

The sheer determination on his face was something to be reckoned with, and had his opponent been a weaker, or more sane, man, he would have blanched at the fire in the sniper's eyes. However, the cracks in the enemy's mind only made him laugh harder. It was easy to see why he'd been given the nickname 'the Hyena'.

"Come and get her, if you think you can, little Strawhat." The blond man leered, his legs already coiling.

Kaya screamed again, flailing and kicking.

"Kaya-sama!"

Several of the servants tried to advance on the pair, only to be met with the booted feet at the bottom of the man's springs. They went flying in both directions, crashing through the Merry II's walls and railing like she was made of toothpicks. Piiman charged under the barrage of splintered wood, his baseball bat, now reinforced with steel plating, poised to clobber the Devil Fruit user.

He never got the chance.

Ninjin dove for the railing as the unconscious body of his comrade sailed through it, "Pii!"

As such he didn't see the attack that sent him launching up into the air with an explosion of blood from his mouth. Just because the captain of the enemy pirates was on the deck of their ship didn't mean that the rest of his crew was going to sit back and twiddle their thumbs waiting for him to return. And as Usopp was frozen, paralyzed by the attack on his wife, a sniper from the crow's nest of the attacking ship had sent a scatter shot straight through the young man's chest.

He coughed again, body spasming, and he fell to the deck, his eyes glazed over and staring lifelessly at his captain, who spun faster than he could blink and fired back.

"Grow Up Kuro Kabuto! Kaiken Star!"

A dagger, more accurate than any arrow was launched from the five-prong, jet dial enhanced device, arcing through the beautiful sea air with a spin that turned the double-bladed knife into a drill that quickly embedded itself into the eye socket of the sharpshooter who'd dared to challenge the King of Snipers. The body of the deceased man fell from the crow's nest in what appeared to be slow motion, and everyone on both ships held their breath. Then as the crack of bone on wood broke the silence, followed by a shrill scream from the assaulting ship, a roar from behind him made Usopp flash back around, arm raised and weapon ready.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" The blond, spring-loaded pirate tossed Kaya to the deck where she landed with a small scream, and launched himself, full force at the Strawhats' long-range weapons master.

Usopp dove to the deck in the nick of time, repeating the somersault and hop that he'd used earlier in levity, to bounce on the balls of his feet with his weapon drawn. "Kaiken Star!"

The second dagger sailed at his enemy, but because of the springs on his legs, the larger man ducked and the blade buried itself in the Merry II's mast. The Hyena's grin was back as he stalked forward, winding up his legs, while Usopp realized he'd been backed into a corner.

"Uso." He swore, trying to edge his way out, but a spring-loaded punch made the wall to either side of his head explode into splinters, and tumbling him into the galley.

Kaya pushed herself shakily to her feet. "LEAVE HIM ALONE, YOU BASTARD!"

"NO! KAYA!" Usopp screamed as his wife launched herself at the attacking pirate.

"So ready to be in my arms, pretty thing? My pleasure." The Hyena twisted the spring his torso had become to re-capture the pale woman, and on a whim, he made her scream again by using his obscene tongue to lick from her jaw to her hairline. He purred in her ear, loud enough for Usopp to hear him, "Mmmmm, I love it when they scream."

"Get… your filthy hands… off my wife!"

The sniper was back on his feet, a bit shaky, with scratches covering his bare shoulders and face where the wall had collapsed around him. His eyes were shadowed, and though his breath came in short bursts, his hands were steady, raising Kuro Kabuto in its small form with ammunition already loaded in the pouch.

The Hyena grinned again, hefting his prize up onto his shoulder, "Make me!"

He jumped back, and shot his foot at the sniper, bouncing off one of the servants with a sickening crunch, before pounding the curly-haired man back into the ruined kitchen. His laughter resonated around the ship, and he hopped his way to where Usopp was once again picking himself up out of the rubble of the shattered wood.

"USOPP!?" Kaya screamed, beating the blond man's back with her fists and kicking her feet.

"Settle, baby." He smacked her ass, making her cry out again. "We'll get to the fun part later."

His insanely widened eyes, swirled with the promise of all sorts of torture for the King of Sniper's wife, making the brunet roar his anger and charge at the assailant. There was more laughter and the impact of Usopp's head with the corner of the stove occurred simultaneously with explosion of a cannon and the scream of a woman.

"USOPP!"

Gentle rocking soothed the pounding in his head when he began to come around again. He tried to sit up, shifting rubble from his chest and coughed several times, agony tearing through his skull. He rolled over, spitting congealed blood from his mouth and pushing away from the floor to try and stand. His first attempts failed, something in his side grinding ominously and his hand wouldn't hold him, but on his fourth try, he got to his feet, though the pitch of the ship had him stumbling to lean against the opposite wall after tripping over the broken debris. He groaned, his mangled hand on the wall, the other on his head, as he picked his way carefully back out into what had become night.

A peaceful full moon shone down from a velvety blanket of twinkling stars to reveal the most stomach churning scene on which the sniper had ever laid eyes. Bodies, thrashed beyond repair littered the deck and into the rigging. The mast itself was toppled, crushing most of the aft cabin. That explained why there had been so much damage to the galley. The crow's nest was gone completely, torn from the top of the once proud pillar like some giant had mistaken it for a popsicle. Growing his slingshot to use a crutch, Usopp stumbled further onto the deck. All of the people he'd set out from his home were gone. Necks snapped. Gunshot wounds. A full half of the prow was blown away, leaving the carved sheep's head to tilt dangerously to the side with the body of the man for whom both incarnations of the Going Merry had been named sprawled across it in grotesque mimicry of Luffy's favorite napping pose. Taking in the destruction, he saw the worst was yet to come as the tiller had been snapped off completely and then jammed back into its slot to destroy the gears and mechanisms beneath it. Even if he'd had a cola engine or a breath dial big enough, with no way to steer the ship, he was as good as dead in the water.

He collapsed to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Kaya…"

The one piece of good news was that his beloved wife was not among those that had been slaughtered. It wasn't much, since she was obviously in the hands of the damned spring-loaded Hyena, but at least he could hope that he could get a message to the other Strawhats so she could be rescued. Unlike his three apprentices. Piiman was lost at sea, Ninjin, he'd seen shot to death personally, and Tamanegi he found beneath the mast, crushed.

With no one to be brave for, the curly-haired brunette threw his head back and howled at the moon through his tears. So many innocent lives. Why? It made no sense! What good was it to attack his family?! He wasn't even one of the more important Strawhats. Surely going after the Baratie, or Laboon, or even Cocoyasi Village would have been more effective than this!? Wouldn't it?

As his body drained of what little fluid he had left to use for tears, Usopp supposed that no, it wouldn't. The smartest strategy would be to take out the weakest link first, and even if he was the best marksman in the world, he was still nothing compared to the Monster Trio, the Cyborg, and the Devil's Child. His face hardened. The bastards had taken the one thing he treasured most in the world, and he resolved that even if he died there on the disabled deck of the Merry II, he'd do it trying to get back to Kaya.

Those thoughts carried him into a fitful sleep that was broken by the sound of sea gulls crying overhead. His body ached. His mouth was dryer than it had ever been, even in Alabasta. And his soul felt like a wrung out washcloth. But he remembered his resolution, and that made his heart pound in anticipation of seeing the blond bastard's face again.

Imagined ways that he could torture the Hyena got him through wrapping his loved ones in makeshift shrouds cut from the mainsail, and the things he planned to do with Kaya when he rescued her bolstered him through laying all of them to rest in Davy Jones' Locker. With each one, he sent a sliver of the ship, a coin from Kaya's coffers, and an offering of food. He'd been amazed that they hadn't been robbed, and he knew he had precious little to offer the spirits if he wanted to survive as long as possible to get back to his wife, but he had to give them something.

The first few days were unquestionably hard, as he kept whipping around from whatever task he was doing, thinking he heard someone's voice or caught a glimpse of one of his deceased apprentices from the corner of his eye, on top of fighting off agony from more broken bones than he liked to count. At night, he began to hear Merry fixing herself, just as her predecessor had done. And as the days became weeks, he grew to appreciate the stories his Nakama had told him about their childhood ordeals. Somewhere around day 3, he realized how crushing it was to have the one person he cared about more than anything else in the world be gone beyond where he could reach her. Day 8 brought the mind-numbing loneliness that gave him a sense of what it was like to be the sole survivor of a massacre. His food stores began to run out by day 13, and the gnawing hunger that had been a near constant companion due to his rationing quickly grew to an all-consuming beast within his belly.

It was a full three weeks after the attack before the Going Merry II, in her dilapidated state, bumped into another vessel. By then, all Usopp could do was lay on the deck, in a tent made from what was left of the sails, his tongue and lips cracked from a lack of water, his skin sunk in on his bones from no food, and all of his injuries were healed completely wrong due to a distinct lack of medicines and bandages that had been ruined by the fall of the mast. Most of his vision was hazed over in constant hallucination and his mind had begun to transport him into the place where the most desperate go for salvation while waiting at death's door. He wasn't even aware of the change in his situation until much, much later.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Double update for you guys because you've been so patient, and life was in the way a LOT lately!

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**Chapter 6: Broken Sniper! Bellamy in Sogeking's Sights!**

It was Zoro who saw the little ship and recognized it for what it was. Zoro who leapt overboard and swam to the poor vessel. Who grabbed a rope, jumped back in the water, and towed it over to the All Blue. It was Zoro who carried their deeply wounded sniper into the medical bay and reported what he had found. And it was Zoro's scream of rage and pain that penetrated Usopp's delusional haze when the ship doctor informed him of just how hurt their sniper was currently and how badly hurt he had been previously. He might never be the King of Snipers again if they didn't re-wound him to set his bones to heal properly.

Coming back to himself the first thing that hit him was warmth, spice, and hint of something only one cook in the entire world could produce. His eyes wouldn't open, his body wouldn't respond correctly, but the taste on his lips gave his tongue the motivation to slip between them and lap at the drops. It was heavenly. He must have died to be tasting Sanji's broth after that Hell, and he found he didn't much care if he had. Only one thing really truly mattered, and she'd been stolen away. A few more drops, another fleeting taste and he had enough moisture in his throat to form sounds.

"...ya... kch... ya..." His tongue tried to loosen his lips again, "Kai... ya..."

His fingers twitched, trying to reach for her, as behind his sealed eyelids he saw the blond haired bastard stealing her away, laughing his sick, twisted laugh, and tormenting the weakest Strawhat with the knowledge that he'd never be able to get her back.

There was a rumble of sound, almost too deep to be understandable. "Kaya's 'is wife. She must've been on the Merry Two with him." Zoro's voice was thick and husky as he spoke to the medic. The man was like a caged tiger. "Y'know when he'll be able to tell us who it was?"

Tears began to break the glue holding his eyes closed as he began to realize that he wasn't dreaming, and he wasn't dead. Kaya really was kidnapped, but he had been rescued. He couldn't hear what the medic was saying but he knew the other voice. He knew it as well as he knew his own.

"Z'rrro..." His voice was hoarse, abused and roughed. "Waz... B'l'my... D-D'n's f-f-fl-fl'g."

"Usopp? You're with us?" The voice was suddenly closer and clearer, Zoro's furnace-like warmth within feeling distance as his snarl rumbled the floor. "Was who? Whose flag?!"

Someone was telling Zoro not to pressure him, but he hissed.

"Don't tell me to leave him alone! He's trying to speak, whatever the message is it's important—someone fuckin' get the cook already!"

"Already here, Marimo. Don't bellow in the patient's room. Chopper would have your nuts for doing that." The soothing tones of the cook filtered through almost before the smell of his infamous mulled cider did. "Thank you, doctor-san, we'll take it from here."

Usopp was already drooling and his face twitched, trying to get the words out. "D-D'n... f-flam... ing... oh."

There was socked silence.

"But he's... he's dead. Years dead," Zoro murmured, hands in his hair. "Who would dare... B'l'my," he sounded it out, slowly, "B'l... me... Bel... me... Bell... ah... me. Bellamy?!" His voice turned into an animal's snarl, "That blond-haired little shit from Jaya?! I forgot the smallfry fuckin' existed after that bullshit with God-Enel."

The sniper's throat was in agony, but he couldn't hold back the sobs as his body responded to the fact that he'd fulfilled his promise. He'd gotten the message to the Monster Trio. They'd save his Kaya, he was sure of it. If he had to die now, he could greet death happily, knowing his precious beloved would be rescued.

"Z'rro! S-san... j-ji!" He wailed as best he could, his eyes coming open for the first time in he didn't know how long.

The cook was immediately at his side, a certain pain echoing between the two of them that made the normally aloof blond kneel and wipe away the sniper's tears. In his other hand was a tray of small foodstuffs designed specifically to ease the starved body. He and Chopper had developed them as something of a coping method to ease Sanji's own trauma. The fact that the recipes were actually useful now that someone else had been on that brink of death… that was just a very fortunate bonus.

Zoro's heavy body thumped to its knees on his other side. "We're here. We'll get the bastard," he assured softly, fingers combing that dark, curly-matted hair back. "And we'll get you strong again, so you can be right there with us when we destroy him."

He knew the feeling of being helpless, of being defeated and forced to watch as an enemy ripped through everything you had tried so hard to protect. He'd seen enough on the ship to form a theory, and what he saw now in the trauma of Usopp's eyes solidified it.

Even though the movements strained the darker man's horribly mangled body, his chest heaved, and already, the sniper was trying to sit up, proving for once and for all, he was a Strawhat. Just as monstrous, just as resilient, and just as stubborn as any of the others. His glare was hard, even as his arm shook, but he managed, through sheer willpower alone, to raise his head and shoulders from the pillows. He was done being weak. He'd had quite enough of that floating around the Grand Line aimlessly, through several nasty storms, and two chance encounters with sea kings that thought Merry II's figurehead looked tasty. The once smiling sheep now had several deep gouges that made her look like she was glaring at the world.

Usopp found he agreed with her.

"Whoa... w-wait a minute. You need rest." Sanji grabbed the sniper's chest as he almost fell out of the bed. "Let's get you fed and healed first. Then we'll go on that murderous rampage you and the baka-marimo are planning, ne?"

Zoro's strong hand joined in keeping the brunette pinned. "Right. Just like Chopper always tells me, Usopp: Sit down, rest, and get better so you can go to work. Ain't no good to get the fucker all pinned right where you want him if your body gives out before you can really make him suffer. Meanwhile, we gotta find him. So you get better while we track and corner the sonuvabitch, ne?"

His eyes were dark and dangerous. Vengeance was not something Zoro took lightly; it wasn't something he jumped to easily. But in this case there was no other option, only to pay it back in full, or better, tenfold—no, a thousand-fold!

The growl that tore from the sniper's damaged vocal cords threw back in their faces just how often they had listened to Chopper when it had been them in his place, but as his strength really was failing him, he allowed the pair to guide him back to the pillows. The motion brought his left hand into view and he gasped at the way his first three fingers were twisted. He knew without having heard the doctor before that they'd need to be re-broken to heal properly, and he needed them to heal properly to aim his kabuto. With a deep sigh that was cut off by a stab of pain reminding him that his ribs weren't too healthy either, Usopp cast his death glare at the ceiling.

"Oi. Don't go burning holes in my bedroom floor, Sogeking-aho!" Sanji chided. "Here, drink the broth. It'll help with your energy, and if you can handle that I'll make dango for dinner. I may even let certain mossheads have some."

Zoro grunted noncommittally. "...Cook. I need to ask Usopp something."

Privately. What he was about to say, what he was about to offer, was nothing he'd ever thought he'd even have to contemplate after Chopper joined the crew. And he didn't really want Sanji to hear it.

Casting a sidelong look at his lover, the blond nodded. "I'll just go start on that dango then."

He climbed to his feet, leaving the bowl of broth and plate of finger foods on the table next to the bed. He had a fair idea of what was about to happen, and as such he made his way quickly to the kitchens, where he instructed his entire staff to deliberately ignore any sounds coming from his private rooms. Several of the servers and the newest busboy looked at him confused but a glance or two at the sous-chef and the line cooks—big, burly pirates just like the ones at the Baratie—and those who had questions determined it was safer to keep to themselves.

Once the cook was gone, the curly-haired brunette turned to the swordsman, "Un?" His voice was still ragged and uncooperative, but slowly, with the broth he'd consumed it was lubricating what had been dangerously close to giving out permanently.

The swordsman slowly looked him in the face, in the eyes. His big hands clenched into huge fists and his shoulders were tense. "Y'know your bones need to be... re-broken. The doc—he's a good doc, Chopper trained him and all, but he ain't Chopper. I don't... trust him to break exactly where the break needs to be. So... if you say so... I'll break 'em."

His entire body flinched as he said it. Hurting his Nakama with his own hands... but hurting to heal. Regardless, the process made his insides twist.

"And... when you're better... I'll help you get strong again. Really strong," he added, mostly to soothe his own conscience. "You're never gonna be Luffy, or even me, or Sanji. But we can make you a close fourth. You'll need to use therapy to get full use of your body again anyway."

"Ah." was all Usopp actually said, but he raised his left hand, mangled fingers and all, offering the currently offensive appendage to the green-haired man. After a moment, he growled. "M-ma... ke m-me s-strong... f-for Kai... ya."

Zoro took the hand and gave his sniper a firm nod. He carefully felt for the exact place he needed, gripped it firmly, and the same way he used to snap metal rods for Usopp's inventions, he twitched his arms. The snap, for all that it wasn't particularly loud, seemed to echo through the whole of the ship, followed by two more, which the larger man performed with equal precision.

Amazingly, the sniper never made a sound. Sometime ago, even at the beginning of that same year, he might have been wailing, moaning the pain, or cursing, but now, after the last seven weeks... the only sign that it hurt at all was a small quiver in the nerve that ran down the side of his face. And the stillness with which he waited for Zoro to splint the three re-broken bones was something that previously had only ever been seen when he was wearing his Sogeking mask and could hide behind that persona. It was actually a little scary, the hard as flint core the sniper had developed. In the end, it would be a waiting game to see if the brunet ever returned to his carefree, fun-loving attitude.

Once the task was done, the swordsman retrieved the bowl of broth, helping Usopp to sit up just enough to swallow without choking while still avoiding pressure on the smaller man's injured ribs. The marimo had complete faith that the King of Sniper's recovery, or lack thereof, would all depend strictly on the Bellamy situation. And Kaya. Though it hadn't been said aloud, the fact that the brunet called for her gave Zoro the seed of hope that she'd been taken rather than killed, as was obviously what had happened to the rest of the crew from the stench of blood hanging on the Merry II's decks.

"We need to feed you before I work on the rest. And you gotta give them time enough to set so when we start training your muscles, the tenseness of the muscle doesn't force the bones out of alignment," the first mate said. "If that happens they'll have to be re-broken again and that takes from valuable training time."

It was a concise explanation. How Chopper got him to start taking things actually easy: the more often he reinjured himself, the longer it took to heal, and the longer he was healing, the less he would be able to train, which was definitely not smart. He may not have been the most strategic crewmember in the Strawhats, but one did not become the World's Strongest Swordsman without knowing a few things. And, if there was anything he was knowledgeable about besides killing and swordplay, it was injuries, even if the reindeer doctor disagreed about his timescale regarding healing himself.

Another couple of swallows of the broth, and the sniper began to be able to form full words again, "Wh-where is Ch-Chopper n-now?"

He'd been out of touch for the better part of the last year. One of the main reasons he was coming back was to actually introduce his Nakama to his wife, as several of the members hadn't been there when he'd joined the crew. Getting a letter via messenger bird meant nothing to them because they knew nothing of her. For all that he was a very open person, Kaya was the one thing in his life that he never shared. Oh, he spoke of how he'd entertained her, and even re-told some of the lies he'd spun to make her laugh, and that had been enough to tell everyone on the Sunny he was in love with the girl. But he never described her. The only picture he had of her, he had sewn to the inside of his shoulder bag, which no one went into for fear of being blown up. And he hadn't talked about her personality outside of the way she liked his lies. So, to think that she'd been taken just when she was about to formally be included in his family, it made him grind his teeth.

"In Skypiea. Some epidemic. We've been working at contacting him for months now but birds can't get up there and travel via the streams takes so fucking long. He should be on his way soon though, Brook set off to fetch him back when the shit went down." Zoro cleared the bowl away, getting ready to move forward with the 'healing' process.

"Sh-shit went down?" The sniper frowned, the unspoken 'were the entire Strawhats being targeted' was written in his eyes.

"You were with Kaya... um... Nami got knocked up. Luffy found out about it one day and there was a big blowup. Nami ran, said it was better if we didn't know where. I know Robin and Franky were taking her to Water Seven, but I'm sure she went somewhere else after. Too dangerous to stay there, everyone knows our crew there." Dark eyes looked down and to the side. That situation still burned at him. "...we've had issues. Everyone knows the crew's down a member and they're taking advantage of it, trying to topple Luffy harder than they ever have. It's a bad situation all around, especially now since that damned little prick has managed to hurt you."

"N-Nami's pr-pregnant?! H-how?!" Usopp's eyes went wide.

The rest was easy to process, with the rumor of weakness in the reigning King's crew, of course all the smallfry would be throwing their big guns at them in an attempt to steal One Piece, especially since none of them even knew what it was anyway. It seemed the only one that was going about it in any sort of logical form was the Hyena, which, grudgingly, the sniper had to give him credit for his plan. However, the idea that their navigator could be expecting was something that just made all of his stories look like children's fibs.

"She wouldn't say. Wouldn't even tell Luffy. That's why he was so angry," Zoro explained quietly, bringing over more of the treats and helping the brunet hold it in his good hand. "Eat now. As much as you can stand. Sanji's orders. He's managed to come up with special foods that bring people back from starvation quicker without overloading their systems. Let's hope it works. You're the first he's had to make it for."

"That's-s cuz he's th-that g-good." Ignoring the topic of his captain and the navigator, a small smile cracked the brunet's bottom lip, but he hardly noticed as he drained the last of the broth. "H-he'd feed th-the world if he c-could."

"I think he can," Zoro replied with a tiny grin in return. "The part he doesn't kick to death, anyway."

The flint was back, "He only gets wh-what I don't shoot."

"You only get to shoot what's out of range of my swords, sniper," Zoro returned, steel and flint meeting and creating sparks of mutual anger and bloodlust. "Make sure you get 'em before they get close enough or there'll be nothing left."

"There won't be enough to get in close enough. While I'm waiting for my bones to heal, I need to talk to Franky about an idea I have for my Kaisen and Shuriken Stars."

Usopp reached to the side of the bed, hoping that his bag, like always, would be right there. He wasn't disappointed, and once he'd fumbled the notepad and pen from the inner pocket, he made quick work of writing down the ideas that had come to him since last he'd gone over what he was going to do to Bellamy if he ever had the fucker in his sights again.

Once done, he nodded at Zoro. "Ok, let's break the others and get this over with. I wanna have everything set before Franky gets here."

The swordsman gently set the pad on the table and placed the bag back on the floor. "These are going to hurt more. You want something to bite? Sanji will kill me if I let you damage your teeth," he added with a bit of grim humor as he produced that appeared to be a leather strip.

"Yeah, sure." Again there was no hesitation, just that core of steel and flint that marked the sniper among the other trauma survivors in the crew. He took the leather between his teeth and nodded, not really caring where the stronger man started.

Zoro worked quickly and efficiently, eyes closed to use his fingers to determine every place that needed re-breaking. The sound of each bone snapping made the cook's hair stand on end, and when his lover snarled for the doc to come, and bring as many bandages and splint wood as he could fucking carry, many of the others jumped. The one he'd done last was the poor sniper's long nose. It had been broken in three places. It would always now have one of those little humps in the bridge that marked the break.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** 2 of 2 updates this time!

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**Chapter 7: Assemble the Crew! Messages on the Wind!**

When the doctor arrived, the cook on his heels, he literally fainted when he saw Usopp sitting up in bed biting down on the leather without a single whimper or tear. Even Sanji found himself a little taken back by the new resolve his Nakama had. Then he shook it off, stepped over the useless man on the floor and set to work with Zoro's help splinting the various bones; both legs in three places, the tibia twice in one, the femur in the other; the humerus in his left arm; four of his ribs on the back right where he'd slammed into the stove in the galley; and, of course, his nose.

"Heh, now your profile's even more distinguished, 'Long-nose-kun'." Sanji quoted their archeologist, and offered both men a bottle of the All-Blue's finest sake. "I know it isn't much, but to seal the promise." He poured three shots. "Usopp gets the killing blow on that bastard when we find him."

Zoro nodded, holding his cup up and his free hand helping Usopp as the cups were heavy ceramic. But this was a highly ceremonious occasion. "Usopp gets the killing blow. But, if I get the chance, I'm cutting off those fucking spring-loaded legs."

"He can spring load everything now. It's how he..." Usopp shuddered, "how he took out Piiman. Coiled his arm like a fucking slinky."

The swordsman paused, and the gears were visibly moving in his head. "...Still metal?"

His eyes strayed to Sanji's leg, his thought clear: the Diable Jambe, which was fueled by the fire of Sanji's soul and could easily melt any metal and burn any flesh.

"As far as I know. Didn't get much of a chance to find out. Bastard threw me into the galley when I charged him. Made me dent the stove with my head." A sardonic smile curled his lips, as the sniper's eyes also slid over to the cook.

As if they didn't already have enough reason to take down the son of a bitch. "That..." Sanji appeared to have run out of insults for the man, because the best he could come up with was, "burnt on rice stain. Has he no honor or intelligence?"

"Nope." Usopp, with Zoro's help, knocked back the shot. "I charged him cuz he put his fuckin' grimy paws on Kaya. Threw her up onto his shoulder like a sack of flour..." He paused, feeling the temperature in the room rise with the fury in the blond's heart. It brought an even more sadistic turn to his smile, knowing that the next bit would flip the switch from 'fucker must die' to 'fucker will be slowly tortured by every ounce of the cook's wrath'. "And he smacked her ass for yelling at him."

Despite his usually swarthy unshakable nature, the large green-haired man went pale. Very, very pale. He even put aside the cups and took several steps back. Mistreating a woman? Worse, the wife of a Nakama who was as good as Nakama herself? Oh god. Sanji was going to start his whole body on fire.

It was what had happened when one of the uppity smallfry currently laying siege to Luffy's home had casually mentioned that Nami must have been the worst kind of slut for even the 'worthless Pirate King' to have discarded her. The resulting wildfire had leveled the offender's ship and half of Raftel in the process. They'd needed two bottles of Franky's cola and the entire contents of the All-Blue's most powerful fire-extinguisher before they could even grab a hold of the cook to submerge him in the ocean.

So, Zoro, completely without trying to even hide it, grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher. It wouldn't do much if the blond completely lost his temper, but it would at least prevent their private suite from going up in flames the way Luffy's cottage had. The slightly singed filing cabinet in the corner looked dubious as to whether it could survive Sanji's wrath twice.

"Of course." It seemed like the sniper's tongue had a death wish as the temperature rose again, "That was after the bastard decided he needed to know how she tasted, and before he took her with him. Or at least I assume he did. I was unconscious at that point."

Everything in the room went quiet, the sort of silence that normally preceded the backdraft of a fire, and slender tendrils of smoke began to rise from the cook's tailor made suit. The end of his cigarette spontaneously lit itself, and where he stood next to the bed, the heels of his shoes were sparking. His hair shadowed his face, but for the core of one ice blue eye, like the center of a flame. It even flickered with intent.

"Cook? Cook—Sanji," Zoro said softly, desperately, gripping the extinguisher for dear life. "Sanji, baby, if you burn the ship we can't catch him. Save it so you can melt him into a heap of slag… please Sanji… don't!"

"Usopp gets the killing blow." Sanji said coldly. In sharp contrast to his body, his words always lost heat. Then he tossed back his own shot to seal the deal, the alcohol igniting right before he downed it. "By the time it happens, the meat to be wasted will be wishing for it."

The sniper smirked, "Ah. Cuz he's gonna have to deal with Luffy too."

Zoro rubbed a hand through his hair. "Oh yeah... fuck... we send off word to him? He's probably the bastard's main target."

He resisted the urge to spit at the mention of the smallfry. No matter how much he deserved it, Sanji hated bodily fluids on his floors.

The temperature dropped significantly, though the smoldering blue coal of the cook's eye remained, and likely would continue until he was able to release the pent up inferno within his soul. "Hai. It is very likely that the attack on Usopp was just the beginning. I'll draft letters to Robin, Luffy and Nami. Hopefully, wherever she is, her bodyguards can get the message."

The sniper whistled after the cook left. "He dropped his honorifics... perhaps we should contact Alabasta as well? And maybe the Neverlands? If we are a target, I'm sure our allies will be as well. Plus a few more eyes in the sea could be helpful, don't you think?"

The swordsman nodded, looking very distracted. "Yeah... the messenger birds are gonna be busy." Then his eyes landed on the sharpshooter's notebook. "Hey, this was what you wanted from Franky right?"

He pointed to the list at the side of the bed. An idea exploding in his mind, suddenly, and needed to catch Sanji before he sent off all the birds: the person he intended to contact had to be reached right away. It would take forever to reach them.

"Yeah, why? I'm sure when Robin gets the message about him she'll have Franky bring the Lotus here though. He's got everything I need on his ship." The brunet frowned and used his good arm to shift slightly on the pillow to take pressure off of his ribs.

Zoro took the list, and folded it up. "I wanna make sure he brings exactly what you need," he replied absently and darted after Sanji, throwing, "I'll be back in a couple minutes," over his shoulder in promise.

Darting like a green lightning flash until he reached the cote in which the messenger birds were kept, he mentally reviewed the last information he knew about his target. From his pocket he pulled a sheet of paper and a pen, scribbled off a quick message and selected the only bird he knew could make the trip. Holding its beak, he stared it in its beady yellow eye and gave it sharp, specific instructions. When he was sure it understood, he tied the message to its leg and tossed it into the air.

Then he went to meet Sanji with Usopp's list for Franky. Subterfuge was not his forte, but in this case, he thought this measure was necessary. He knew his lover wouldn't agree with his decision, which was why he'd had to do it without his knowing, but that didn't make him feel any better about it.

The cook looked up from his desk, the black, wire-rimmed reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. "Usopp ok, Marimo? You see a little hurried."

"Yeah, uh, just wanted to put this in the letter to Franky. It's stuff Usopp wants to use on Bellamy when he gets the chance," Zoro replied, passing the list over. "Wanted to catch you before you sent it out. That silly doctor wake up yet, or am I still playing nursemaid?"

"I'm fairly certain, even if Mr. Out-Cold wasn't, we could leave Usopp to his own devices for a while. It's not like he can hobble around and do anything on two broken legs, baka. Unlike some mossheads I know, he has more sense than to try and jump right back into training the second his injury is bandaged." A curled eyebrow rose suggestively at the swordsman.

Zoro shrugged. "I stopped after the second time I re-broke it didn't I? Psssh, who'da thought a healing bone couldn't take just four tons of pressure," he grumbled.

"I'm not even going to touch that one, aho-kenshin."

Sanji finished the letter and dropped the list from Usopp in the envelope. The letter for Luffy was already done and ready to be sent, so he opened the window above his desk, whistled the calling tone and his two fastest birds, Chiqicheetah and Pell, named for the two fastest warriors Sanji had ever had the pleasure of fighting alongside and in recognition of the way they'd fallen in the final war against the World Government. With another moment to tie each letter and give the birds their instructions, they were off.

Surprisingly, the pirate king was not at his home. Well, not really that surprisingly considering the rubber man's lust for adventure, but Chiqicheetah originally flew towards Raftel, only to discover that, in the weird way the messenger birds did, the person he needed to deliver his missive to was not there. So, several hours after he'd left the All-Blue he passed back over it, tailing Pell. It took him a day to reach Water 7, and only fifteen minutes to find his target.

"Ah, thanks, Chiqi." Luffy took the envelope from the bird, and immediately opened it hoping to hear word of his wife.

Not even water meat tasted quite right these days, and that was saying something because next to Sanji's cooking, water meat was the best food on the planet. So, opening it, he had to read the cook's neat handwriting three times before he actually could wrap his mind around things.

"Don!? Attacked Usopp!? Near death... ransacked the Merry II!? KAYA! NO!" The captain of the Strawhats growled, clutching the paper in his fist. "Damned pink bastard!"

He stormed down the street, ignoring the sounds of protest and strange looks he was given, still fuming around a piece of water meat he snagged from a vendor that worked closely with Galley-La. Not that the rubber man realized he stole the thing, but the shopkeeper didn't go chasing after him because the woman knew the tab would be paid when next Iceburg was around to stock up his own supplies. Luffy was so focused on his food and the things in the letter that he wasn't even really watching where he was going. So, it came as a complete surprise to him when he found himself upside down with a woman on his chest... a rather round woman.

"AH! Sorry!" He scrambled to his feet, hauling her up like she weighed nothing, though her cloak flared out around her midsection.

Once he righted himself, dusting his jean shorts and fixing his hat, he actually looked at the woman, who stood frozen in front of him. The hood of her cloak had fallen down, revealing her long, ginger hair, wide brown eyes, and plump lips he knew entirely too well. His mouth went dry and he reached out to her. All of time stood still as she poised to flee, but his hand stretched just enough to clasp her wrist. Something in the grasp made her stop and stare at him. His dark eyes were drawn to the way the cloak parted, leaving a crescent of pale skin vulnerable to the sun. He moved the hand he had on her arm to brush lightly against the curve of her belly, with something like awe on his face. His palm touched her skin and for a few precious seconds she held her breath. Then he moved ever so slightly towards her and she panicked, with a loud scream that summoned the taller of her bodyguards.

She vanished in the blink of his eye. There one minute, gone the next, his hand still stretched out, the skin still tingling with the warmth of her belly. The profile of the person who'd whisked her away was unmistakable and though his shoulders sagged, and his heart threatened to break yet again, he at least knew she was safe. That gave him enough energy to keep going. If this stuff with Don was really true, it was better she was out of the way anyhow. So, with a final longing look at the place where the woman who owned the King of the Pirates had been standing, he flung himself off to where the Lotus and the Mini Merry were docked. He needed to gather his crew together so they could hunt down the bird-brained bastard.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Combination of too much life and too little spoons lately. Sorry.

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**Chapter 8: Together Again! Strawhats Unite!**

Robin stared at the scrap of paper. One little sentence caused so much chaos. Everything suddenly went topsy-turvy. A dead shichibukai's flag was flying once again and a long-defeated enemy was back with his sights set on their weak spot. "Fuck."

It was the only word that came out of her mouth. And that single word said more to Franky than a thousand. In all the years, he'd never heard her curse. Not once, regardless of the situation. Crocodile had only heard it once, and he had been stunned stupid by the results that followed, which was how she was promoted to his partner. She pulled her hat down further to shade her eyes and handed Franky the paper.

The large cyborg read the paper, spit the mouthful of cola he'd just taken across the room, read it again, and said, "What?!"

"FRANKY!"

The yell from the door distracted him from his initial shock with another one; standing in the doorway to the Lotus' galley was the captain, now with cola dripping from his enraged features.

"AH! Luffy! Sorry! Have you seen this!?"

"We're going to hunt that bird-brain down and make him sorry for hurting Usopp!" The pirate king growled, shaking himself like a dog, which sprayed the walls with the cola.

Fortunately the shipwright planned for this, and the paper on the walls was designed to absorb the moisture to be sent through the little ship's filtration system to be turned into bathwater. So, it was of no consequence when Luffy stormed in and slammed his own version of the letter down on the table. There was a telling tension in the rubber man's shoulders that spoke of more than just the misfortune with Usopp weighing on his mind. Of course, the fact that he was in Water 7 at all was kind of a give-away that something was seriously wrong.

He plopped himself down on the bench next to Franky and crossed his arms over his chest. "Doflamingo will be sorry he crossed me right now."

Robin and Franky looked at each other before the ebony-haired woman, with no warning, slapped her captain upside the back of his head.

"You're being stupid again, Captain," she replied flatly. "This isn't about a dead Pirate Lord. This is about one of his discarded toys. One so inconsequential everyone forgot about him and he used it to his advantage. Bellamy, not Doflamingo. Honestly, you were getting better about that jumping to conclusions thing." She shook her head at his confused frown. "Now we've got that cleared up, Luffy, what are you doing here? What happened to make you leave Raftel?"

"Ow." The dark haired man rubbed his head, then looked sheepish. "I... I couldn't sit around waiting." The same defeated air came over him again, and he took his hat in his hands, holding the brim and running his thumb through the fibers. "It's too loud without her to yell at me. Everything around me just stares at me, even after Sanji burned the house, and... and... and I heard you talking about bringing her here."

Franky grimaced, tensing his muscles to distract his lady if he needed to. Coming here, after being so seriously reprimanded just weeks ago? He understood what his captain was thinking but he certainly couldn't say he'd have the same bubbles to brave coming to the place where he'd been practically told to avoid.

The archeologist gave him a stern look—stern, not fierce. It soon melted and she sank into a chair. "Yes... the silence can be... maddening," she admitted softly. "But now we've got much worse matters to be concerned with. Bellamy is back and he has a grudge. Somehow he survived Doflamingo. The man's mind must be as twisted as sin. And he's taken Kaya, who was as good as Nakama even before she married Long-nose-kun. How do we get her back and wipe him off the face of the planet? I'm not Nami, Captain, I'm sorry. I can't think of anything better than simply chasing after the bastard's shadow and we may never catch up to him that way."

His wife's name made the Pirate King visibly flinch, though he tried to cover it with one hand rubbing the back of his head again. It'd been so long since they had any kind of situation where Nami hadn't been around to sort out what needed to be done that the brunet was very much at a loss for a course of action. He frowned harder than he had in years, eyebrows knitting together and a small whine, that was evidently his 'thinking noise', emanated from his mouth.

"Oi, Luffy-bro, don't hurt yerself." Franky grasped his captain's shoulder, concerned.

"Mah! Sanji!" Was all Luffy said, making the cyborg even more confused.

Robin raised an eyebrow. "You think Sanji will know what to do?"

She was nearly as lost as her boyfriend. Unlike Zoro, she'd never seen Luffy lost and without his navigator before. It was a fairly unnerving process.

"Dunno. But I'm hungry. So, we need to go to Sanji." Because apparently the food on Water 7 wasn't what he wanted.

As _The _Strawhat turned on his heel and left the Lotus' galley, the shipwright turned to his other half. He was frozen in disbelief for a moment, before shaking his head in wonder. Only Luffy could be facing potentially the worst threat to his treasure he'd ever faced, and drop absolutely everything because his stomach growled. At the same time though, the blue-haired man had to admit that whatever it was that gave the Pirate King his luck had to be working somehow.

"I'll shove off then, yeah?" He had to ask his lover because truly, he was not following whatever was going through his captain's head.

Robin was massaging the bridge of her nose. "...Do that. I'm sure Bellamy will lay a trap; he's already proven intelligent enough to go for our weakest link. If we have to go charging into what we know is a trap, we should at least be all gathered together. And somehow, somebody's got to get a hold of Chopper!"

"Aye, aye, ma'am." With a direct course of action the mechanical man was much more comfortable.

He also wouldn't say it aloud, but the fact that the captain was now seated on the prow of the Lotus, shouting at the top of his lungs for the cook, seemed to be a sign that the trouble within the Nakama was quite possibly beginning to ease. He wouldn't bet on it, but he certainly hoped with the introduction of a common foe the issues between the king and queen could be forgotten. So, with a considerably lighter heart, he hauled the heavy ropes into coils on the deck, securing the Mini Merry to the Lotus' aft, and eased the flower ship away from the Galley-La harbor.

"SUU-PER!" He crowed, punching the cola-jet's ignition switch in the center of the wheel, sending the trio careening away from Water 7 parallel to the Puffing Tom's tracks.

The archeologist held onto her hat and prepared for a long, bumpy ride with a slight nostalgic smile. It would be... good... to be riding back into battle with familiar friends at her side. Even if the overall situation was more painful than many of the previous ones.

Four days later, the blond head chef of the All-Blue was enjoying his first cigarette of the morning as the sun rose gently to his left when the peace of the early hour was utterly shattered by a rapidly growing call.

"SaaaAAANNNNJIIIII! MEEEESSSSSHHHHHIIIIII!"

"Oh, sweet Geezer's nose hairs." His smoke dropped to the deck and rolled into the water unnoticed as he tore his way back through the private quarters and into the kitchen like a mad man, bellowing, "OI! YA LAZY, SHIT-FER-BRAINS, RISE AND SHINE!" The decibel level dropped significantly when the door to the restaurant proper swung closed behind him. "We have incoming royalty, fuck it all! Stash that roast. No, don't put in the fridge, he'll look there. I don't care what you do with it, Flambé, just don't let him near it. Oodon, get the lead out yer pants and secure those store rooms. What part of my words are you, lazy, good-fer-nothings not understanding!? Keep the..."

He trailed off the further into the kitchen he went, but in the living room of the private quarters it was quite obvious that had the reinforced walls not been between him and the rest of the ship, people would fear for their eardrums.

Zoro was up, having been wrenched from sleep by the first of his beloved's bellowing shouts, and his hair was bristled like the plant for which he was nicknamed, while he tried to still the ringing in his ears.

"Dear God... well, Sniper, it appears the Captain got word and decided to come visit." He was quiet a second before saying, "Heal faster. I'm... I'm going to get the doc and see if he can do anything."

"Uh... what?" Usopp blinked sleepily.

He was sitting up in the bed where he'd first woken up after everything happened. His bruises were mending quite well, already fading to green and yellow. The split in his lip was almost completely gone. Now they were just waiting on his long bones to finish knitting together. Whatever it was that Sanji put in the food that Chopper helped him design was a miracle. Already, the sniper could flex his feet without the muscles pulling or protesting, in spite of the broken places.

"Luffy's here" was all the answer that came out of the other room and another thump. "Goddamnit! We need a doc with a stronger constitution, this is what the fourth time he's fainted on us?!"

"Sixth." Sanji reappeared, bearing a tray with breakfast for the gathered Strawhats, plus two of the three on their way. "There is a footlocker awaiting him when he reaches—"

"SANJI! MESHI!" The crash of a Gomu-Gomu-no-Rocket shook the ship from flag to tiller, causing the cook and the shipwright to glare, though the captain couldn't see either, until he burst through the door from the deck.

The blond just pointed at the open door on the other side of the room. His staff would guide the rubber man to where his bottomless stomach could be filled without much in the way of distraction. Weak-hearted men never survived long under Black Leg Sanji anyway, so he was confident that the ones who could were also able to handle the chef's captain. The locking mechanism that would hold the Lotus and the Mini Merry flush against the All-Blue sounded, and to a roll of the sniper's eyes, a habit he was picking up from his therapy coach, the lithe pirate danced out of his home in a stream of delicate smoke.

"Robin-chwan! How good of you to join us once again!"

The archeologist tipped her hat to him grinning. "I see you prepared for us. Well, Luffy's bullhorn mouth is good for something at least."

Zoro rested his chin in his hand, not moving. For one, he didn't want to watch his lover fawn over Robin, and for two he didn't want to leave Usopp when a stray rubber arm might come whipping in as the captain's limbs were wont to do.

Franky, seeming to have the same mindset as the swordsman, came up immediately behind his lady, and sucked his teeth. "Insatiable idiot."

Two of the Lotus' petals would need to be repaired before she was used for any sort of long voyage again, which meant the shipwright was in no mood for playing games. He wasn't often possessive, but with things the way they were, stress piling on top of stress, he couldn't help himself as unconsciously his left forearm shifted enough to make the sound of a cocking rifle.

Immediately, Sanji righted himself from bending over the lady's hand, and nodded towards the doorway next to the spiral stairs that led to the second floor. "In here."

"H-hey guys." Usopp tried to smile convincingly when the trio joined Zoro in the sniper's infirm room, but it was just as obvious a lie as any that spilled from the long-nosed man's mouth.

"Hello, Long-nose-kun," Robin said quietly as her big, watchful eyes took in all the damage. She, very obviously, did not move out of Franky's arm range and one of hers slipped around his, as she smiled. "I see Sanji's been getting you healed with his miracle food."

Zoro grinned, pride obvious in a way that would never have been possible before Luffy became Pirate King. "That he has."

The sniper puffed out his chest, tossing his head in assumed arrogance, though the glint in his eye was deadly rather than jovial, "Nothing can keep the Great Captain Usopp down for long."

"Yes, well, 'great captain', you've still a long way to go while Chopper is still missing in action." Sanji took a deep drag on his cigarette, his other hand in his pocket.

"Y'don't think something could've happened to the Bonehead, do you?" Franky shifted a little uncomfortably.

Zoro and Robin exchanged a look—rare, but it did happen from time to time. Then they both burst out laughing.

"Chopper? Pitted against something he couldn't beat, outsmart, or outrun?" Zoro snickered. "Not in a million years! Especially not since he can use all his medical knowledge against somebody."

"O-oi!" The cyborg seemed a bit affronted for a moment, but just then Luffy made his appearance once again.

"Whew! Sanji!" The rubber man wrapped his arms around all of his Nakama. "We're back together again! Yosh! Let's kick Don's ass for not keeping a better watch on his flag!"

The archeologist frowned all levity gone abruptly. "This is the second time you've mentioned going after a dead-man, Captain. And I'm now certain it wasn't a fluke. What do you know?"

Zoro stepped back—fuck she was getting that look again.

"Well, Brook came back from the grave, didn't he?" The brunet man's neck twisted his grin upside down, just before the stretched arm that wasn't draped around people's shoulders began to retract, hauling the slight man out the door again with a joyous shout. "Merry II! We'll save you!"

"I-is it just me, or is there something going on I don't know about?" The sniper watched their captain leave as quickly as he came. "He seems almost... manic... which is saying something for him."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Sorry again, minna! I'm gonna try and get back in the habit of posting every week, but life just gets crazy and I end up passing out at the end of the day instead of updating. x.x Thanks as usual for all the WONDERFUL reviews! They mean the world to me! Honest!

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**Chapter 9: Resolve!**

A string of arms snaked after the Captain, grabbed him and hauled him back inside, pinning him down. "Captain. I forgave you going to Water 7 after I told you not to, but if you don't start talking I may have to reconsider..."

The swordsman blinked down at Usopp. "...We're definitely missing something," he agreed.

Luffy just grinned, one hand on his hat. "Sorry."

"Luffy."

Even Zoro gulped. "Just tell her, Captain, whatever it is, is not worth your manhood! Just look at what she does to Franky, and she's not nearly as fond of yours as she is of his!"

He got several nasty looks for this and ducked behind a door.

"No, really. I can't tell you." The Pirate King's smile grew a sweatdrop. "It's a secret. I promised."

Sanji, Franky, and Usopp hung their heads. Vaguely the thought that it was a good thing the rubber man and his wife were on the rocks at the moment crossed the room, as it became painfully obvious that no matter what the archaeologist planned to do to their captain there was nothing any of them could do to stop it. Worse yet, Luffy, himself, seemed resigned to taking whatever the ebony-haired woman decided to dish out without cracking. It was uncertain if his mental flexibility was due to his Devil Fruit or his idiocy, but if there was one thing The Strawhat didn't do, it was crack under pressure.

Robin eyed him. Usually it was easier to talk around it with the rubber man than speak directly. "Mm-hmm. You promised, specifically, to keep a secret... from your own Nakama? You must be joking."

"Nah. Not just Nakama. Everybody. Nobody's 'llowed ta know, 'xcept me."

His smile grew, and there was a flash in his eye, back to the fall of the World Government where the very last supposedly loyal Shichibukai had turned on his employers in a flurry of bright pink feathers that had given the Strawhats the opportunity to breach the Gorosei's stronghold. His Nakama had seen the large bird-man go up in a puff of expelled feathers, falling from an impossible height to crash to the ground as though whatever invisible line that had been holding him had been severed. There was no possible way for him to have survived. Each and every member of the Strawhat crew was sure of it! The implication otherwise sent chills through the room.

The stoic woman considered her captain for several long, tense minutes. "...This secret. It's not going to bite us in the ass, now is it?"

Zoro twitched. Robin was... cursing? Freely now? The situation had to be more dire than he'd knew. His eyes darted to Franky, and the shipwright shook his head, a motion that was carried through the others around the room as well. This most definitely did not bode well.

"Nah." The captain was cocksure, and apparently oblivious, as always. "Birds don't scare me."

Robin nodded. "Then I will let you keep your secret. Everything comes out in the wash," she remarked mysteriously before slipping out of the room.

The swordsman stared after her and blinked. "...Da fuck does that mean?"

Luffy broke out laughing, falling on the floor holding his sides, the glare he received only made it worse. His mirth was infectious as Franky smirked, chuckling softly as he patted the swordsman on the shoulder before following his lady. Even Usopp was fighting off laughter, as the sound of a lighter near the first mate's ear cut through the dark, tumultuous aura growing like so much moss around him.

"I'll explain it later, aho-Marimo." Sanji had the ember of his inferno dancing behind his irises playfully again.

Zoro threw up his hands and stalked from the room, cheeks flaming. He couldn't help it, that woman just—just—just—

"Stupid... riddle talk... fucking... fancy words... goddamn... gypsy tongue," he grumbled irritated as he paced the deck.

Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, the blond cook tucked the sniper's dirty dishes under his arm, and took the long way around from the dishroom. All too often in the last several months things stood in his way, and well... a flustered marimo was a sexy marimo. So after delivering his burden to the busboys, he deliberately sauntered past the fuming swordsman, tossing a coy eyebrow flick over his shoulder.

The larger man was drawn to that gaze like a moth to his cigarette cherry. He stopped his pacing immediately to follow after him, watching his ass move.

As soon as they were around the corner, the blond snaked his leg out to wrap around his lover's hip mid-walk. A steady, decisively powerful hand gripped the other's chin where rough, green stubble that had yet to be cleared away that morning made the moss ball analogy that more realistic. The butt of his cigarette was forcibly thrown over the side of the rail, and his last lungful of smoke trickled out of the corner of his mouth.

It made his voice husky and demanding. "I love it when you get jealous."

Zoro eyed him even as strong hands pulled their bodies flush. He had eyes only for his cook, his lover, his mate. When he spoke, his voice, too, was low and husky. "Dozzat mean I get ta reassert m'claim?"

"Why else would I taunt you so recklessly?" Sanji teased, nipping at the expressive thin lips in front of him.

Those thin lips stretched wide in a feral grin. "Good. 'Cuz we ain't gettin' nothing else done for a while."

With that he picked up his cook, went through the nearby door, and locked it behind him.

On the deck of the Lotus, Franky smirked at the lovebirds before ducking his head into the secret door that protected his beloved's precious library. "Bobby?"

Robin was in there, sitting on the table, hat at her side, and, for once, she wasn't holding a book. "I'm here, Franky."

"You ok?" He stepped in, shutting the door behind him, carefully.

She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. "...mostly. But I can feel the lingering tension. And looking at Usopp... seeing what our feud has done..." She shook her head. "I didn't want to turn into Ms. All-Sunday again, Franky. But I have, and I suspect I'll be staying this way until Bellamy lies at the bottom of the sea."

He reached out, took the hat gently between inhuman fingers, held it up for a moment, then placed it atop the tallest shelf in the underwater room. "Then it's about time I reminded ya who ya are behind closed doors. I ain't involved wit' Ms 'Sunday." He stepped around the table to use the same gentle caress to cup her chin, his thumb brushing along the edge of her bottom lip. "That girl don't exist, 'xcept in yer own mind. In here, where it counts, all ya are is Bobby." He kissed her softly, "Sweet." Lips. "Special." Jawline. "Nerdy." The hollow of her neck just below her ear. "Free."

Her arms came around his thick, augmented shoulders and a long sigh was breathed into the air. Her body went pliant and soft, and a little smile lifted her mouth.

"Mmm. Yes. Bobby. Still not quite sure where that name came from, my dear." She took comfort from him even as her body began to respond.

"S'a nickname. Back when everybody had their own language and letters and stuff the people who came up with the symbols fer 'Robin' met up with some people who had th' same meaning but said it differently." He slipped his hands down to circle her waist and winked. "Sides, it suits ya better. Bobby sounds small and spunky. Robin sounds like somethin' ya do ta people who have too much money."

Robin's laugh rang out, an oft-missed sound these days. It was the strangely delicate, chiming laugh that was unique to her and it hadn't been heard since before the mess with Nami. She just buried her face in her man's neck and giggled, even snickering a time or two. She couldn't even respond, she was so breathless. Oh, moments like these reminded her why she loved this man so much.

He flat out grinned. Yup, just needed to remind her that under all the subterfuge and secrets, the pain and panic, the fear and fighting, there was light and laughter. It didn't matter how dark things ever got, and they had been dark all too-often for the shipwright's way of thinking. The important thing was that even if they had a heck of trip ahead of them, they were all still Nakama, and regardless of whether she had to don that hat again or not, she would never be forced to live as Ms. All-Sunday ever again.

When she was at last able to breathe again, she pulled back just enough to touch her forehead to his. "Love... why the Hell haven't I married you yet? Officially dragged you in front of a preacher or the Captain? After Bellamy's been rent limb from limb, I think that we should celebrate."

It was an impulse. She didn't know what possessed her to let it come tumbling out of her mouth. But it was out now, and she really did mean it, so no point in taking it back.

His eyebrows shot up. "M-mar-marry me? What happened to 'I don't trust marriage' and 'commitment is more sacred than contracts'? I mean... eh... sure, if that's what you wanna do... uh... I'm fuckin' this up ain't I?"

Worry creased his forehead, and color stained his cheeks. He'd not been surprised when they had first talked about it, though it had hurt a little. Tom-san and Kokoro's marriage had not been recognized by the government because of their Fish heritage back then, meaning that they'd never been able to fully, legally adopt either Franky or Iceburg, but he had shoved his own feelings about it aside because he'd long before decided that Robin was the one he wanted to be with. If she didn't want to get married, he was willing to sacrifice that for her as long as she let him treat her like his wife anyway, which she did.

"No, dear, I know what you mean," She assured with another giggle and a kiss. "As for what happened to it? I don't know. Perhaps it has something to do with my deep desires to say 'get your filthy eyes off my husband' which I cannot technically, legally say. And you know how I am about the technicalities. That and…" She flushed a little, "...Zoro got me thinking about it."

"Zoro did?" He let his hand trail along her spine, stopping just north of being suggestive while still teasing. She always understood what he meant, even when he didn't sometimes.

"Yes. He gets frustrated sometimes, with his jealousy. He feels he doesn't have the right to get jealous sometimes because it's not legally permanent between him and Sanji. And he's got this pathological fear Sanji will find someone better someday," she wriggled slightly in his hold, teasing back.

"Well, I can see how you'd feel the same." He rolled his shoulders, making the metal joints crack as though they were flesh and blood, and consequently making the muscles of his exposed chest ripple. "Who wouldn't want a super body like this?" He grinned, smugly, but just as quickly, pulled her tight against him, "That's why I leave whole islands full of broken hearts, cuz not a one of 'em can compare ta you."

"Quick save," she purred teasingly as she snuggled up to his chest. Arms bloomed around him to hold her steady as she sighed deeply. "And that's my man. My Franky."

"Always yers, babe." He brought his mouth to hers again, ending the conversation.

Back inside the room where Usopp had hardly been left alone the entire time he'd been laid up at the All-Blue, the captain and his sniper were oddly quiet. Both felt the weight of how the others in their crew had deliberately toned down their interactions with their partners for the sake of the two that were missing. As soon as they were alone, the two dark-haired men, both carrying a burden neither one could share but both understood, met eyes and all attempt at frivolity fell away. Luffy tucked his hat down to shade his face, and Usopp turned to watch the gulls outside the porthole.

"Say, Luffy…" The sniper began.

"Ah?"

"Kaya… Kaya would never leave forever. Guess I'm lucky that way. She might get mad at me. Say things she didn't mean, but eventually, sooner or later, she'd come back. Thing is, she can't stand to be away from me. She hates that she can't because for a good long time, it meant that she couldn't stand to be with me either. I was always doing stuff that that drove her crazy. She'd yell and scream and throw things, but that was the best part. I knew she never was really angry, because she'd always end every argument the same, with tears. People…" He had to stop for a moment, and take a deep breath. "People who hate someone don't care if there's tears. In fact, they expect it. They seek a person out specifically to cause those tears, but someone who loves you… they cry when they're angry because they don't want to be angry."

The Pirate King was quiet for a while, then he padded over to sit against the bed, his back leaning on the frame at Usopp's hip where he sat on the floor with his arms resting on his drawn up knees.

"Hm."

"I really am the luckiest guy in the world. I wish everybody could be as lucky as me." The sniper's voice was wistful.

Luffy put his chin on his crossed arms, "Yeah."

They still didn't look at each other, keeping to their own thoughts for a while. The sea gull got bored and with a soft cry flew off. The sun climbed higher into the sky, and though there was no sign from any of the other crew, neither brunet needed it. The silence between them spoke volumes about the depth of their bond as Nakama.

"You'll make a great dad, Luffy."

There was a longer pause this time, because being frank wasn't something that happened often with the long-nosed man from the East Blue, but eventually, the captain's head rolled to press his cheek against his bicep, bringing the burning ember of determination within his eye around to catch the steady, steel-hard gaze from the sharpshooter. That corner of his mouth turned up, and he used a finger to tip up the brim of his hat, the same way his older brother used to do when he was showing off. This time when he spoke, the single syllable carried the full brunt of the Pirate King's Will.

"Yosh!"


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Sorry! Sorry sorry! I didn't mean to let this lapse for so long! I just got distracted updating on Ao3, and sort of... ran out of spoons to update in multiple places all the time. I can't promise it won't happen again, but I will do my best! I can't abandon you lovelies! Enjoy~!

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**Chapter 10: Just How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go?**

"Hm."

His eyes skimmed the letter for what had to be the fourth or fifth time. His dark brows were knitted together and a tension trembled just barely visible along his jawline as the only signs that something was amiss. Otherwise, his somewhat lanky form was relaxed in the chair at his desk within their cabin aboard the Flying Pan. One hand twirled a pen, letting the feathers brush the back, though he downright refused to admit that it was because he missed the feeling of those soft brush-like touches against his skin.

In the bed behind him, a much bulkier figure rose and stretched, spine and joints popping. A pale white, black-nailed hand raked fiery locks out of a rugged, craggy face, wine-red eyes flickering open as that hulking form slid from the bed and came over to the desk, draping itself over the slimmer man. His single hand slid over the other captain's shoulder, thumb rubbing at his neck as his deep rumble of a voice forced its gravelly way out of his chest.

"Oi. Yer givin' off the Surgeon of Death vibes. What's got'cha in such a bad mood firs' thin' in th' mornin', eh?"

"It appears Luffy-ya has discovered something troubling." Imperceptibly leaning into the touch, the brunet adjusted the letter so that his co-captain and lover could read the neatly printed writing from the head chef of the All-Blue. "Someone who dared still breathe after he was punished is daring further by being disrespectful enough to fly a flag that should have remained retired."

Garnet eyes skimmed it at first, then backtracked and re-read it once, twice, three times, the wide mouth that so easily stretched into a smile frowning deeper and deeper with each reading. "...well fuck. One'a the old man's toys managed to live past bein' broken. I thought after th' business with Moria yer dad got better at cleanin' up his messes. I can't even remember this lil' shitfuck. But th' cook ain't one fer false alarms." He was quiet for a second, then sighed deeply. "...I'll get m' goggles."

His goggles, iconic and treasured as they were, had in these more peaceful times ceased to be necessary. They protected his eyes and nose while welding tiny bits, but after Luffy became king and they flew beneath his flag, things had been... nice. Peaceful, except when smallfry were spoiling for a fight. So, his goggles had moved from his forehead to his neck, then to a pocket, and finally into a drawer. There they had stayed these past years. He didn't need them anymore. But now… now he did. Damn it all.

He'd need to get out his mechanical battle-arm, overhaul and fine-tune the thing too. Fuck. He'd retired that thing; he was going to practically have to rebuild it from scratch. The magnetism master frowned, losing himself for a moment in mentally re-working the schematics. The sound of his lover's voice drew his attention back to the slender man.

"He was something that was supposed to have been crushed before the Joker met Luffy-ya in person." The smaller of the two placed both the letter and the pen he'd been playing with on the desk and stood to gather his coat and hat. "I will inform the crew to set a course for Raftel. The Strawhats will have what you need I'm sure."

He, too, was irritated that the peace among the Pirates, however unlikely it was, was being disrupted. With no World Government controlling things, the three factions of the world had reached a mutual understanding of avoidance and tolerance. As long as people didn't do nonsense like this, everybody at least put up with each other without resorting to powers and weapons. Most of the big name Pirates looked to Luffy as the king, following his example for how to treat others, and almost all of them had a territory that was theirs to control and protect. Being a rowdy bunch things weren't always exactly what the surgeon would call tranquil but it had been peace in some sense. It had been relaxing, and enjoyable being able to simply concentrate on his studies without worrying about being chased by Marines. It allowed him to devote time to research things that would ordinarily have been considered trivial, even weak.

Beyond all of that though, how dare that peon fly that flag! Though Don had never been his father exactly, he had been as good as one. Especially after Cora… Law felt his heart clench at the thought of how they'd been betrayed. Even to this day the name Vergo was a curse on his lips, and none of the Family had ever truly been the same afterwards. He supposed that was the defining moment, when he'd returned to being obstinate and willful. The large Shichibukai had tried so terribly hard to impress on him that he was the man's son, but the eventual Surgeon of Death had flat out refused so many times that it became a joke between them. It showed how much he cared, however, in situations like this. Even if Luffy and the Strawhats for some reason managed to be defeated by the smallfry who dared show his face again, Trafalgar Law made the silent vow that he would put an end to the man's disrespect for good. He planned to make an example of the idiot if the king let him.

The brunet's eyes darkened for a moment. Then he donned his coat and picked up the pen again. A short message to the cook about their intentions and a request for Franky to bring his best tools. If his lover had to go into battle with that thing on his body, then he was going to have the best damned thing the maniac could create. To do that, the doctor knew he'd need access to the top of the line equipment, and no one either on the Grand Line or in any of the surrounding Blues was better at what he did than the cyborg. He finished the letter with a flourish and called their messenger bird.

"Come, we have preparations to make." He said shortly, belying his fury.

Eustass 'Captain' Kidd dug his fingers into his hair again; reaching for what Law had lovingly termed his 'civilian arm'. He'd—and he would never admit it to anyone out loud—he'd made it just for Law. It was the same size as his flesh-and-blood arm, and it contained no weapons or mechanisms outside of a rope. He'd even talked his beloved into developing a synthetic skin to cover it with, in a strange sort of thoughtfulness so that it gave the illusion of being the one he'd lost. He knew Law hated the cold metal, how he often felt bad for not being there to put the real one back on. Though the genius doctor had been on a different track then, working to become a Shichibukai, and hadn't had time or inclination to be involved with his fellow Supernova. So, to waylay the sometimes not-so-carefully-hidden guilt, Kidd had gone out of his way to replicate the missing limb. It was his masterpiece in an attempt to make the man he loved forget that perceived failing, and a gift, to celebrate their coming together after Luffy was made Pirate King.

Kidd forced the prosthetic into its socket, gritting his teeth as the nerves connected. Mother fuck he never got used to the way it hurt. He breathed out deeply and flexed the fingers a few times.

"I know. I'll have Killer an' Heat bring out the old arm. I'll need it for blueprints... an' I had some pretty good daggers and shit in there when I decommissioned it, I think." He leaned down and kissed his lover's cheek, both thumbs gently kneading at the back of the doctor's neck. "If there's anything left of the shit when we get there, I'm sure they'll let you cut 'im inta a million bits. Though that sniper guy gets first dibs, I'm sure."

"The peon should consider himself lucky if the Strawhats find him first." Law's unspoken threat hung in the air like a promise of things to come.

Lord, he hadn't been this angry in years. Just the idea of the man's audacity had him ready to dismember something. It surprised him a bit, and he took the kiss as a good excuse to try and refocus on other things. He turned to look up at the redhead.

"Do you suppose that we should contact Crocodile?" It translated more into, 'should I be gracious enough to let my father's lover have a shot at the fucker' but only those that knew him best, like Kidd, could tell.

Kidd paused. "...we probably should. But, um... I know you think it's a crazy superstition, but... can you let me...?"

The end of that sentence was 'consult my coat'. It sounded crazy, and stupid, even Kidd knew that. But Doflamingo had always sworn up and down that certain clothing items, like his feathered coat and Kidd's furred one, could detect certain waves in the air, in the sea, and alert their wearers. It helped alert them to danger, nearby enemies or allies, etc. Kidd had been sold when, well, his fur had been rubbed all the wrong way, literally. On a bit of a whim, he'd gone looking for Law, and found him surrounded by women pawing at him like he was a piece of meat with only his pride keeping the black-haired man from calling for help. Damn Amazons. Kidd had then put as much stock by his fur as Don ever did by his feathers.

He was hoping his coat wouldn't steer him wrong this time either.

Finally, after what had felt like forever that morning, Law cracked a sardonic smile. "Of course. I wouldn't want you to do anything without it. You always feel so off balance without its advice."

Though he never said as much, that was the reason he loved his psychopath as much as he did. Just a little touch of the place the surgeon thought of as home no matter where they were on the oceans. Of course, that touch of home also gave him fodder to use in teasing his lover the way he'd teased his fathers.

Kidd laid another kiss on him before going into the very back of their closet and pulling out the maroon fur-and-spike-coat, slipping into it and settling it on his shoulders with the familiar twitch. And when it slid into place, so did another thing—the old, familiar, bloodlust. He'd had eased out of it gradually over the years of relative peace. But that coat brought him back to the core of who, and what, he really was.

He was Eustass fucking "Captain" Kidd. Before the fall of the World Government he had the highest-bounty ever recorded. Only Fire-Fist Ace had been higher, and well… a Pirate's bounty didn't carry over once he was dead. He was a menace to every place that held any metal of any kind. An animal that walked on two legs, and caused so much collateral damage he put the D brothers to shame. He just stood a moment, eyes closed, stroking his fur. Relishing the sensation of donning his identity again, and deliberately ignoring the amusement dancing in his partner's eyes.

"...Trafalgar? Remember how I told you sometimes my coat gives me a distinct message rather than a vague feelin'?"

"Yes." The brunette waited patiently, gently stroking the brim of his hat, the corners of his mouth curled into his famous smirk.

"We have two messages. First, I quote, 'It is holy motherfucking shit time'. Haven't heard that since the Great War. An' th' other is...'it's taken care of'." The redhead grinned ferally at his lover. "Well, looks like Crocodile must either already know, or he's going to right fuckin' soon."

"Ah. In that case," Law donned his hat, and a light came to his eye that he, too, had been missing for a while, a sadistic shine that left no doubt as to why he was the Surgeon of Death. "We had best make haste, or your coat won't forgive us for missing out on the action."

Kidd swept him up in both arms, up to that strong chest that soon would have a belt of fighting daggers strung across it like a bandolier.

"Mmm. Yeah. An' mebbe we'll have a little of our other kinna action on the way? I'll make Heat light up the engine," the big man purred darkly.

Their combined crews and ship had been, because the fire-haired captain couldn't stand to be idle long, outfitted with a massive engine so they didn't have to rely on the winds and current to get where they wanted to go, and fast. But it still took a while to get started, which meant plenty of time for plundering along the way.

A flick of the slender man's wrist had his hand hidden between them and running along his lover's belt line. "Well, now, we can't miss out on that sort of action either, can we?"

"Fuck no," Kidd growled. "So let's get to it, Doktorr."

With that, of its own volition, the door slammed shut and locked itself. Later he'd send a message via the internal tubes to Heat with orders to fire up the engine and make for Raftel, but for now... the Doctor was in, and the Captain intended to cause a bit of 'collateral damage'.

Half a world away, the yellow-eyed falcon Zoro had released flew exactly where it had been directed, screeching its arrival. The Green-Food-With-Legs had been right to choose the toughest; its message had nearly been intercepted multiple times on the long journey. The falcon had fought off them all, and fed well.

A great golden perch was extended to it, and it caught on firmly with its claws. It had no fear of this one, though the Scaly-On-Legs was dangerous, because they were familiar. He'd been the falcon's previous owner, and though it could fly anywhere, for Green-Food-With-Legs, this was the only place it went.

"Must be important if they sent you," Scaly-On-Legs' voice rumbled like an earthquake as a dexterous hand untied the message on the falcon's leg and unrolled it, holding it down with hook and hand on the desk to read.

However, as the man this particular letter had been sent to read the message, one word at a time to take in the full implications, the ground truly began to tremble. By the time he got to the last word, the entire island was shaking violently, the ground roiling and spiking with infuriated waves.

Its mission completed for the moment the messenger perched on the windowsill above the desk. The falcon tucked its head under its wing and waited, nonplussed by the violence around it. Green-Food-With-Legs had warned of this. It had only to wait and Scaly-On-Legs would send it back with a reply.

From the modest, comfortable house came an explosion of sound and matter, bursting through the door and all but one of the windows, with such violence glass shattered and wood splintered right off its hinges. An unearthly howl echoed across the sea, making people five islands off shudder and hide. The demonic sound that was so frightening held at once fury, pain, grief, and an unholy bloodlust, a desire to maim, bleed, to rend limb from limb and scour in acid, to skin alive and rub with salt. That scream promised unending torture for which death would be a sweet, blessed relief.

Through it all, the falcon waited.

It took some time for the man to regain control of himself and stop rampaging about the small island that was his home. Very little was left standing now: all that remained was his house and a single oasis in the center of the land. When he had wrestled his emotions back into control, he returned to the desk beneath the only intact window, and the falcon. It stirred with a bored eye as he snatched up a long-feather quill and penned the fastest note he ever had. The kanji were sharp, made with knife-like slashes of the pen, and was remarkably short. A scattering of sand from his hand to dry the ink and it was tied to the falcon's leg for a return trip.

The bird was glad to hop back onto the golden perch and be carried outside. More battles and better eating was in his future, and after that, a long rest with the other messengers. He spread his wings the moment they got out of the door, and when the thick perch flung him into the air he set off on his journey home with a high screech of thanks for the lift.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** As some of you may know I had to have carpal tunnel surgery at the beginning of March, so I just got my stitches out, here's hoping I can get back on track with updating.

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**Chapter 11: Smile! The Cat's Out of the Bag!**

Beyond a great door that used to be a symbol of oppression and prejudice that struck terror into the hearts of most men, the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, tall, imposing, and terrifyingly strong, sat behind his desk shuffling through reports: this island had that trouble, that fleet was scheduled to be deployed there, and other minutia of the day to day life that was what was left of the world's biggest military organization.

He raised a hand to his chin, pulling gently on the pale pink braid that was just long enough to cross his palm. Most of what he was looking at simply needed his approval. A signature along the bottom noting that he'd read it, but then something tucked behind most of the massive stack of paperwork caught his eye.

"The All-Blue, huh? I wonder what they're up to this time." Releasing his beard, Coby opened the envelope and had to read the missive twice. His eyes went wide, "Helmeppo!"

The blond Admiral threw the door open, his sunglasses perched on the top of his head for once. "What?"

"Ready the fleet."

"WHAT?!"

"Sanji-san has just informed me that the Bellamy Pirates have revealed themselves. They cannot remain unpunished." The Fleet Admiral rose to his feet and pulled his coat around his shoulders. "Several members of that crew escaped judgment at the end of the Great War, and now that they have acted out once again, it is time we put an end to them."

"B-but isn't that the Pirates job now? Part of the agreement to allow us to take back Marineford was that anything that happened from here to Raftel was under their jurisdiction." Though he didn't look or sound it at the moment, the Admiral really was one of the most powerful men in the military.

The slightly shorter man sighed, "Yes, we did, but among that crew is one Marine deserter named Fullbody. He has a death grudge against Sanji-san, made worse by the actions Luffy-san and company made during the Great War. The scuttlebutt is his lover was killed in action, but that's beside the point. Before then he had been a lieutenant and was given a second chance after a disgraceful incident regarding the Baratie. However, when the World Government fell, he fled the scene." The pink-haired Fleet Admiral's eyes grew hard, "We're going to catch that deserter and show him why he was a fool for allowing pride to cloud his judgment so horribly."

Helmeppo nodded, still nervous. "Aye, aye, Sir."

"Dismissed." Coby bent over his desk for a moment, retrieving the message and jotting down a quick note to respond to the chef. "Now if only we could get the damned mushi back up and running, I could actually take a day off and visit them."

He sighed, rubbing his temple, then turned on his heel with the letter in hand and left his office, making a mental note to check in with the researchers in what was left of Dr. Vegapunk's lab. If anyone knew how to fix the snail-like communications system, they would, or if they didn't, they'd find out.

As it always seemed to be, when the Marines and Pirates knew something, so did the third ruling power. Though there was nothing to be 'revolutionary' about anymore, the name stuck with those who had followed Monkey D. Dragon against the World Government during the Great War and all of the conflicts leading up to it. So, with their headquarters having taken over Mariejois, now renamed Ryuunosu, the Revolutionaries controlled the Red Line. Their primary goal these days was to eradicate lingering traces of the previous government's corruption and prejudices. Consequentially, what had once been a primarily military movement, now focused on education and information, though not without a significant peacekeeping force.

Thus, word of the conflict brewing within the ranks of the Pirates came flying into Ryuunosu on the wings of a messenger bird. Uncertain who it should deliver its letter to, the hawk landed on the first friendly arm it found, a young boy, barely out of childhood. He took the rolled up envelope and scanned the front, giving a startled shout that scared the bird. Then, before the avian could get a second grip on him, the boy took off running towards the main building complex.

"President Dragon! President Dragon!" He shouted bursting through doors, and past people.

Answering reprimands of "Hey! Watch it! Look where you're going!" followed him as he tore through the capital city.

"Sorry!" He called, looking over his shoulder, and as such didn't see the wall of man that he crashed into until his nose was meeting solid muscle. He bounced off, landing on his rear end, hands flailing for a moment. Then he looked up, in awe and a bit scared, "President Sir!"

Dragon, a tall, intimidating man, still had the diamond tattoos on his face that made him look even more fierce than his long black cloak and generally forbidding expression did. However, since achieving his primary goal, he tended to smile a bit more, and it was then the D relation was obvious. They all had the same all-consuming smile as Gol D. Roger, and that smile made an appearance as a heavy hand reached out and picked up the boy by his collar, setting him back on his feet.

"Hello to you, child. Were you looking for me?"

"Y-yes, sir! A letter! From the Fleet Admiral." He held it up, rubbing his behind a bit. "Was just delivered a moment ago."

"Mm, I see."

The smile disappeared just as abruptly as it had appeared, and he took the letter and opened it up to read. His son's Nakama was under attack, hm? He'd notify all troops. They'd need to be sure to stay far out of his way, in the process of destroying the enemy Luffy sometimes caught allies and innocent bystanders and dragged them into the fighting. They'd have to be sure to try and avoid that… maybe have Sabo and Koala relocate the civilians north of Reverse Mountain, Hack could probably oversee the mobilization of people as well—his mind was pulled from the preparations he needed to think about by seeing 'P.S.' at the bottom of the sheet. Blinking, he trailed down to the post script—

His eyes went wide just half a second before his knees buckled, and he crashed to the floor in a dead faint, the letter fluttering on top of his chest to display the elegant script.

"S-sir?" The boy blinked a few times, "A-are you alright?"

He looked down at the missive and had to blink several more times at the precise lettering, 'It also appears that you're going to be a grandfather. Sanji-san mentioned Nami-san is pregnant in his letter to me. Congratulations.'

King Cobra of Alabasta stumbled into the hallway just then. He and his daughter had arrived to speak about rebuilding the Ohara Library. It was yet another of the great tragedies committed under the reign of the previous government that the Revolutionaries were fighting to correct. Upon discovering the president's senseless form and the bewildered boy, he took several purposeful strides towards the pair, intent on discovering what had happened. His eyes landed on the page in the boy's hand, and with a curious expression on his face, he leant down to scoop up the missive.

"What is... oh my. Nami? Pregnant? But- but- but, how, if she's married to—oh my. The Pirate Queen is pregnant. The Pirate King has an heir! VIVI! VIVI, I HAVE GREAT NEWS!"

He went running to find his daughter in an entirely unbecoming display of unbridled joy to share the good news, never suspecting anything amiss. If anyone could perform a miracle, it was his firm belief the Strawhat crew could do it. He didn't realize that the walls, even here, had ears, and this information could be harmful to the Pirates who had saved his kingdom.

In the shadows, on the opposite side of the wall where the free-spirited monarch had just rushed by a cloaked figure with a hard cast to her features adjusted the set of her wire-rimmed glasses. She had to play this information carefully. The superior she told first had to believe that she was firmly working on his side, but without giving away too much information so as to undermine her true leader. In a small fountain of bubbles the slender woman literally slipped away from the wall. When she approached a certain door, far in the dark recesses of the governmental palace, she twisted a special key given to her by one master to help in deceiving the other. It was designed with technology that was similar to her co-worker's devil fruit power, and only the ones he trusted could use it. So, opening the door, she stepped through that non-world to exit from her personal cabin on a ship that was the best of Thriller Bark and the worst of Sexy Foxy. This master called it the Mad Hatter, and the woman had to admit, it was a fitting name for all the twists and turns that led absolutely nowhere.

Striding quickly through the corridors for the 'tea room', an audience chamber where the crew met with their captain, styled to look like a large dining table where tea and other hot beverages were constantly available. Though some of the concoctions offered were both disturbing and not particularly safe. Luck of the draw appeared to be one of the captain's favorite games these days. She shuddered minutely, displacing the movement with a couple of well-placed bubbles.

"Bellamy-senchou, I bring news from Ryuunosu." She spoke clearly, her heels clacking on the tile floor.

The Hyena's eyes sparkled dementedly as he let his chair thump to the floor, the bright pink shirt he still wore, painful on the eyes as he turned that feral, frightening grin on his newest, and most amusing, spy-tool.

"Ohh yeeeeahhhh? Well doooo tell," he sing-songed, slamming a fist on the table and making the china rattle, swiping one before it hit the saucer and downing it. Hmm. Twice-brewed coffee and a dash of cleaning solution, not half bad. Better than the used dishwater he'd gotten last time.

"It appears that the Pirate Queen is expecting. I'm sure you know as well as I what that must mean, seeing as how the 'King'," She used an emphasis on the word to sound derisive, "is like yourself, a Devil Fruit User, and she is not."

The evil way his mouth spread impossibly wider was uncomfortably like the man whose flag he still flew, and he crooned, leaning back in his hair with a snicker. "Ooohhh, yes I indeed doooooo. My… my my my… someone has been a nauuuughhtyyyy little sssslut~! And that's just to my advantage, mmm yes it issssss. A suitable man from the crew to claim fathership should dooooo the trick! Get them alllll fightin' against each other. Divide and Conquer, juuuuust like Doflamingo-sama."

He stroked his pink shirt with a sort of lingering reverence for the man. He couldn't hate him. His training, his breaking, had been much too thorough. Lost in his own twisted thoughts for a few moments, he leaned back, tipping the chair up on two legs, petting his shirt. Then, suddenly, he slammed forward again, the chair banging the floor with a resounding echo.

"Any worrrrrrd on the longnose? After all, his wife's been suuuuuch a delight." He grinned at one of the seats across from him, where the woman had been forced into a dress and seated in the place reserved for 'Alice', hands and legs bound to the chair and metal across her mouth to keep her from speaking.

"Not from Ryuunosu exactly, though the whisper down the line is that the Strawhats are gathering from across the globe. Dragon discovered the pregnancy from a missive he received from the Fleet Admiral, which leads me to believe that they plan to strike back. Whether that means the sniper survived, or not, is uncertain." Her answers were short and concise, even a bit cold, but then, that was her appearance. "Shall I inform the others?"

He giggled in a sort of hysterical manner. "Ohhhhh yes, doooo~! Their reactions will be mmmmmost amuuuusingggg! Yehahahahahaha!"

He swiped one of the 'eat me' biscuits and munched on it carelessly, still giggling uncontrollably. It would be fun if the sniper survived, and fun if he died too, so he didn't care either way, that wasn't the important part. The pertinent information, he already knew!

"I'll be on my way then." She bowed, the light shining across her glasses, then turned on her heel and left the room again, withdrawing her special key.

This trip would take longer and be more informative, so she made certain to actually lock her cabin door before stepping through Blueno's corridor again. Exiting the other side brought her out of a cabin into bright, warm, sunshine somewhere between Marineford and Alabasta. She didn't know exactly where, and didn't want to. That way the information couldn't be extracted from her. She took a moment to compose herself before stepping between lines of hanging laundry.

"Lucci." She called, knowing they were the only inhabitants of the island.

Instantly, like a demon of legend, he appeared before her, sharp eyes glancing all around. "Kalifa."

His hair was wild, still growing back after being chopped short, but his familiar beard was back, trimmed neat and close to his skin. However, his hat was missing. Probably because he was running himself wild trying to keep Nami both entertained and fed. Her cravings were getting harder to fill, even with the use of Blueno's door, at this stage of the pregnancy.

The soap woman adjusted her glasses, again the light glinting off the lenses, her jaw hard, "He knows."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Not much to say this time, was updating the others so here you go~! Enjoy~!

* * *

**Chapter 12: **Strawhats Outgrabe! The Jubjub Bird's Despicable Song**!**

Soon, a small, one-man craft docked outside the All-Blue. Ordinarily, such an occurrence was common place, people from all over came at all hours to sample the best fish in the Four Blues and the Grand Line combined. However, this ship bore a specific person, though he had disguised himself well, hunched over with fake sorrow, his light purple hair dyed black, and gloves for his hands to cover the screws in his knuckles. He was dressed in a striped shirt and ragged pants that he stole from the original owner of the vessel, now well on his way to Davy Jones' Locker somewhere fifty kliks due West by the log pose from the not-so-stranger's current location. His boots were his own, and the Marines ballcap was worn backwards.

Upon entering the restaurant, he removed it, twisting it in his hands in a show of nerves. "E-excuse me," He asked the first person to cross his path, "I heard the Pirate King was here?"

The fire-haired young sous-chef was a spitting image of the chef himself, though they were in no way related, from the lanky, toned muscles all the way to the swirled edges of his eyebrows. The only differences were a certain flame-like quality to his red hair, even the curls of his eyebrows were more fire than curlicue, and he kept the strands short and spiky, revealing phosphorus green eyes.

At that moment, a calculating light burned in the viridian orbs, as he eyed the man, but Boss's orders were clear: if they weren't making trouble, they were allowed. "...You'd hafta talk ta th' boss. Just a min." He crossed to the door marked 'Private'. "Oi! Old Man! There's a creep out here."

"Flambé! What have I told you about customers!? AND I AM NOT AN OLD MAN!" The bellowed response was accompanied by the sound of marching dress shoes.

Poking his head out of the kitchen, Sanji scanned the dining room, lovingly irritated at his sous-chef. The man at the bar wasn't exactly out of place but something about the scar on his cheek kept drawing the blonde's attention. Then he saw Flambé standing next to him, having returned as soon as his message was delivered, and frowned a bit. Just as the lanky redhead turned to call for him a second time, the head chef crossed the dining room.

"Welcome to the All-Blue. Can I help you, sir?"

There he was, there stood the cause of all his trouble and misery, and for a moment within the gloves the stranger's fingers twitched with want to take those pretty fucking hands and break every bone. But—but no, no. He had to wait. The final revenge would be all that and so much more.

He forced his voice to remain meek. "Um, yes, I h-had heard the, er, the Pirate King... was here...?"

The owner of the All-Blue frowned lightly, his eyes narrowing. "What business do you have with him?"

Yeah, that's it. Come closer to the bait... "I-it's about… um… his... h-his... wife. I er… h-heard a rumor... and..." The stranger twisted the cap some more, affecting nervousness with a touch of fear. He needed the fucking pile of shit to take the goddamn bait.

Sanji's eyes narrowed further. "Whatever you heard is false. I can guarantee it, but for the sake of argument, what drivel is circling among the riffraff these days?"

Yes! Now he just needed to hook the bastard and the trap would be all set, just like Bellamy said. The former marine in disguise let his voice drop as if he was frightened of what the reaction would be, though it was difficult to keep the sneer off of his face. Ha, like he gave a shit what these insignificant sons of bitches who ran with the man who ruined his fucking life thought!

"Well, um, y-you see... that is... rumor is she's pregnant. An-and I... I came to... t-take responsibility."

The notepad of a waiter walking past caught fire spontaneously. "I see. One moment."

The head chef spun on his heel and left before he said anything else, striding through the door marked 'Private' next to the swinging doors of the kitchen itself. Addressing the assembled Strawhats, Sanji took a moment to compose himself by lighting a very much needed cigarette.

"There is a man in my dining room..."

Zoro gave him a look. "Aren't there supposed to be people in your dining room?"

His voice was sarcastic, but as he took in how tense his lover's shoulders suddenly were, he abruptly realized this man, whoever he was, wasn't someone Sanji wanted in his dining room.

"...should I feed 'im to the sea kings?"

It took several more drags on his cigarette and the unconscious, not so subtle, leaning in from the crew, before the cook could answer. "He claims to be the father of Nami-swan's baby."

Luffy was on his feet in an instant. His hat was low, and he cracked his knuckles. Though unsteady on his feet, Usopp followed their captain, not more than a pace behind. There was a moment of hesitation, Franky reached out but stopped his hand before he touched the captain. Sanji contemplated continuing to stand in the way, but after a few long, agonizing seconds, he stepped to the side with the very real acknowledgement that if he hadn't and the Pirate King wanted him to move, he'd be moved. Judging by the shine beginning to form along the rubber man's skin, rather violently, too.

Outside, Fullbody pursed his lips and wrung his cap again, this time from very real agitation under the watchful gaze of the sous-chef. Wait for it, he reminded himself. The line is set and the bait is wiggling, gotta be patient. He'll take the bait, and when he does...

Wait. Was that—shit, was that steam coming out of the room the fucker had gone into? Suddenly, Fullbody wasn't acting his nervousness anymore, because abruptly it really didn't seem like such a good idea to lie to the Pirate King's face about fucking his wife. Gulping, he forced himself to stay, trembling just a little.

The door burst open in a fit of Haki that left the knob and frame quite damaged. Franky inwardly winced, knowing he'd have to fix it and anything else that would come out of this conversation, if it could even be called that. The steam from Luffy's anger rolled out like the monstrous fog of the Florian Triangle, clouding the windows and significantly darkening the dining room. For a few tense moments nothing happened, but then they were on the move, striding in formation, the infamous Strawhats. They may have been missing a third of their crew but it wasn't something that seemed to significantly affect the terror they inspired. Flambé, having been keep an eye on the man at the bar without needing to be told, specifically because his head chef hadn't said to, shrieked like a little girl and ran, knees and elbows flying, for the safety of the kitchen.

Luffy marched straight up to the disguised former Marine, tilted his head to look down on the man and his neck cracked, "You said you wanted to talk to me."

Fullbody released a squeak and cowered down. Oh God, how could he have forgotten the sheer power and aura the Pirate King produced?! It was definitely no longer acting as he clung to this little play certain that it was the only thing that would keep him alive. "W-we-well, s-sir, your, um, your l-love wife, s-sh-she… um, w-word is sh-she's pregnant. I-is she?"

"What of it? The One Piece doesn't get handed down like a crown. So why do you care if she is?"

The shadows and the angle from which the man was resolutely not whimpering made the Pirate King's eyes glow. There was an ominous mechanical click and the shkt of a katana being popped loose. Without turning, Luffy knew that Sanji would have his weight on his back foot, Robin had her arms crossed, and Usopp's targeting would be locked on the pathetic creature at his feet. All in all, if the man wanted to survive he'd have to come up with some very colorful and creative excuses for why, at that moment, he'd decided to come in and disrupt their strategizing.

He closed his eyes and blurted the whole spiel, too terrified to do it carefully. "SheaskedmeforhelpandIsaidokayeventhoughIknewshewasmarriedandIcametotakeresponsibility! I'm sorry! Ijustcouldn'tsaynoandIthoughtI'datleasttrytohelp I'M SORRY!" He assumed the fetal position, arms protectively over his head.

"Wha'…?" Luffy tilted his head, the steam dissipating.

The others shifted uncomfortably, sensing something was off about all of this.

"I… Nami wanted to have a baby, and she asked for my help, so I-I did, even though I knew she was married, I'm sorry, I couldn't tell her no," the worm tried not to let his voice shake too hard, knowing if he got this wrong he was mincemeat. "I only came to… to take responsibility, help out with the baby once I heard, you know, I had no idea she hadn't told you!"

Shaking like a leaf, he raised his head slightly to gauge the Pirate King's reaction. He made his eyes big, trying to look as innocent as possible as the litany of lies spilled from his mouth.

"She... ah..." The captain turned his back on the other man, deflated. "Nami... is very hard to say no to."

Then Luffy retreated to the privacy of Sanji and Zoro's quarters. Franky and Usopp lowered their weapons, confused, while Sanji raised his visible eyebrow and lit a new cigarette. Robin was watching the man closely, with hard eyes. Something about this wasn't right, and it was really rubbing her the wrong way. Zoro downright glared. He wasn't going to say anything, yet. No airing the crew's dirty laundry in front of strangers. But as far as he was concerned, this confirmed everything he'd thought when this situation first came up: Nami was a lying sea-witch, and she'd betrayed them.

"So, did she do it for him then?" The sniper's voice was quiet, and not quite directed at the newcomer.

Fullbody licked his lips and his Adam's apple bobbed nervously. "I-I really don't know. She d-didn't, um, exactly talk once I-I-I'd agreed. Guess sh-she figured I d-didn't n-need to kn-know."

"Well, if nothing else, the situation has been cleared somewhat." The cook used his smoke to articulate his sentence. "I assume you're here to trying and claim some right to the child? Or, are you implying that there was more than just you donating to Nami-san's cause?"

The disguised man shook his head frantically, waving his hands. "No! Nononono, no no, I had no relationship with the Queen! Ou-outside of the obvious, of course," he was quick to put in; like fuck he wanted to hang around with these shitstains waiting on her! "And, not to claim, but uh, if h-he doesn't, y'know, want the kid... which is w-what the rumor is... I was g-gonna help Nami. Y'know, since it's kinda m-my 'help' that um, st-started this?"

"Well, the rumor is wrong." Usopp jumped in, hobbling forward on his crutches. After all, lying was his specialty and this nobody had no need to know that there were troubles between the captain and his navigator. "Any child of Nami's is a child of the Strawhats, regardless where she got him or her. So, you just go back to wherever you heard that and tell them that the next scumbag that says otherwise will have Captain Usopp and his eight thousand subordinates to deal with!"

Fullbody nodded and bolted, but the moment he was on his ship and shoved off from the All Blue, he dropped his act with a vicious smirk. Hook, Line, and Sinker. Now if Bellamy was right, they'd destroy themselves from the inside and taking them out one by one was going to be easier than crushing a baby bird beneath his boots.

From within the quarters behind the crew there came the loud bang of a door being forcibly closed. Usopp winced, then groaned in pain at the wince, leaning more heavily on his crutch. His tibia was fine, but his femur on the other side was still too weak to walk on unaided and the way the crutches rested under his arms made the fracture in his left arm ache if he leaned on it too much. On the upside, his nose and hand were back to almost absolute normal.

Franky was quick to support the smaller man, but at the same time he frowned back at the damaged door. "What do you suppose he's up to in there?"

Sanji rolled his eyes, deliberately using his latest cigarette to keep himself from spontaneously combusting anything else in the vicinity. "If I know our captain he's probably destroying one of my rooms again."

Robin was disturbingly silent. And she remained just that way as she slowly walked outside, to the railing, where a line of hands brought her the white hat she had left behind. No more Robin. No more 'Bobby'. The situation had become too bad. It was time to bring out the demon, to sink into it, and stay that way.

A deep, rumbling growl came out of Zoro. "I knew it. It's proof. I knew she was a liar!"

His whole body was tight and humming with killing intent. His eye glittered with murderous rage—for who, it was difficult to tell. His nostrils flared, and with a long, low snarl like an angry tiger, he turned on his heel and stalked off to his training room to take out his fury in a constructive way.

"O-oi! Marimo! What do you mean she's a liar!? OI! SHITHEAD! DON'T IGNORE ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Sanji stormed after his lover, the cancer stick between his teeth giving him the appearance of a dragon blowing smoke through his nostrils.

Franky and Usopp watched them go, then the cyborg broke the silence that followed. "Let's get ya someplace ta rest, Soge-bro. Yer startin' ta look like Pandaman."

For once, the sniper merely nodded, exhausted by the excitement.

"Oi, Flame-boy." The large man called for Sanji's sous chef.

When the lanky redhead appeared, he nodded and escorted the two of them to a separate private room. One that was set up ordinarily for small gatherings, but could be turned into an infirmary at a moment's notice if the space wasn't occupied. It was where Chopper stayed when he was on board, so the sheets were fresh and the bed was soft. Usopp was out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow. Then Flambé gestured for the shipwright to follow him back to the bar.

"You look like you could use a drink, Aniki." The young man poured him a tall, ice cold, cola, which earned a bright smile across his face.

"Thanks, kid!" Franky knocked it back, and gratefully slammed the thick glass down for a second one. He figured with new information to process, he'd give Robin a bit of space.


End file.
